Draft Postal and Parcel Services (Amendment Etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

Gill Furniss Excerpts

Thursday 13th December 2018 General Committees

[Gill Furniss (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairpersonship, Mr Rosindell. On the whole, I am assured that the statutory instrument mostly ensures technical changes to remove the relevant EU references from postal services regulations.

As the Minister outlined, the basis of the statutory instrument is to attempt to address retained EU law to ensure it operates effectively and alters deficiencies arising from the UK’s exit next year. Part two makes amendments to the 2000 and 2011 Acts, to remove or replace references to obligations that will no longer apply following our departure. Part three revokes the 1999 regulations, which implemented article 22 of the postal services directive and required member states to designate a national regulatory authority for the postal sector. The draft regulations will revoke the European Commission’s decision of 10 August 2010, which established the ERGP.

As the Minister will know, however, the Commons sifting Committee overturned the decision of the House of Lords to pass the SI without debate. The Committee argued that the Government should provide more information—for example, on the effect of the UK’s non-participation in the ERGP—and possible alternatives for the future. Therefore, I am pleased to have the opportunity to sit on the Committee today.

I will be brief and get to the crux of the matter, because the Minister very competently gave us an overview of a complicated set of regulations. I have a number of questions. First, was there a discussion during the Brexit negotiations about co-operation between the UK and EU on postal services following our departure? It has become a trend that the Government have failed to conduct impact assessments on the recent wave of SIs, so what assessment has been made of the implication that this measure will have for how postal services flow and how our parcels will be delivered in future? Finally, what assessment has she made of the impact that revoking the 2018 EU regulation on cross-border parcel delivery services will have on UK consumers’ access to competitive postal service prices?