Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Report stage
Wednesday 18th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Ms Ghani]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. If the law is already devolved, the devolved Administrations have the ability to assimilate, amend or revoke, which is why some of the interventions from Opposition Members are slightly absurd. Why would they not want the opportunity to have a review? If the devolved Administrations want to assimilate the law, they can. If they want to amend it, they can. If they wish to revoke it, they have that choice. Why would the devolved Administrations not want to embrace the powers this Bill will give them?

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

The Minister talks about the devolved Administrations hanging on to their powers. Will she ensure that the dashboard on retained EU law is updated to identify which legislation is reserved and which is devolved, as well as how legislation in Wales might be affected?

[Ms Ghani]

Yes. The hon. Gentleman may have missed the earlier part of my speech. Government officials have been working with devolved Administration officials for more than 18 months, and that work will continue. When we discover an EU law, we put it on the dashboard. Of course, there are conversations with officials in the devolved authorities, and it is important that we continue to work closely with them.

I was going to say more about the UK’s tremendous work on the environment, because I saw some dreadful, inappropriate coverage in the press, including nonsense about marine habitats. I have just had some information from DEFRA about its fantastic work in Montreal on marine. We have done more work on environmental standards and status outside the EU, including in protected areas such Dogger Bank, to enhance protection by 2030. We are also integrating our ocean and coastal mapping.

Unfortunately, colleagues who are uncomfortable with the Bill have also peddled misinformation about our water bodies and water standards. There is an assumption that the target is being moved, which is absolutely incorrect. Targets are not being moved. It is incorrect to say that the target for the good state of England’s water bodies has been changed—it is still 2027, as outlined in the water framework directive. Hopefully that will cancel out any other misinformation on this stuff being shared on social media sites.

Reform will be needed in other significant areas, which is why the powers in the Bill are necessary. It has been suggested that the Bill will somehow be a bonfire of workers’ rights. We are proud of the UK’s excellent record on labour standards, and we have one of the best workers’ rights records in the world. Our high standards were never dependent on our membership of the EU. Indeed, the UK provides far stronger protections for workers than are required by EU law. I have already spoken about maternity rights, but we can also look at maternity cover, holiday pay and other rights for employees.

--- Later in debate ---

[Hywel Williams]

Alas, I am going to add to the tsunami of nonsense, as it was termed a moment ago.

I rise to speak to amendments 38 and 39, tabled in my name and those of my right hon. and hon. Friends. I see the Minister is back in her place. I welcome her undertaking to me earlier that the dashboard of retained EU law will be updated to identify which legislation is reserved, which is devolved and how Welsh legislation might be affected. I look forward to seeing that in short order.

It is no wonder that we are debating amendments tabled by the SNP, the Alliance party and Plaid Cymru aimed at preventing the UK Government legislating in areas of devolved competencies. The UK Government have cut the Welsh Government out of post-EU funding schemes, rendered the Sewel convention almost valueless, and yesterday made it clear beyond any doubt that the Union is not a partnership of equals, when they vetoed legislation passed with overwhelming cross-party support in the Scottish Parliament.

The protections offered by amendments 28 to 30 and 37 to 39 are vital as it becomes clearer still that our rights are not safe under Westminster. The Government seek to undermine the democratic right to strike, the democratic right to peaceful protest, and the media’s ability to report matters of public interest and importance. And now before us we have this dangerous Bill threatening the rights and protections we gained as an EU member as fuel for their Brexit bonfire.

I add Plaid Cymru’s support for amendments 19 and 20, tabled by the Opposition, which would prevent the UK Government revoking vital protections for workers. In my view, the way to protect Welsh workers’ rights for good is to devolve employment law to enable the Welsh Government to legislate on a wide range of matters, but that is not quite in scope for this debate. It is important, however, given that the UK Government seem to have given up any pretence of doing so themselves. Instead, the Welsh Government are lumbered with the consequences of this impractical, dangerous, costly and wholly ideological legislation. The Counsel General for Wales, Mick Antoniw, has warned that the Bill could lead to the Welsh Government’s own legislative programme being almost completely overwhelmed, with significant financial and resource implications. And this at a time when our focus should be on supporting households and businesses struggling with cost of living pressures.

The Bill is an unwelcome, unnecessary and politically driven distraction. It risks reducing standards by allowing key pieces of legislation simply to lapse, placing even greater pressure on businesses who trade with the EU, while eventually and inevitably giving rise to a whole new batch of red tape. But we should worry not, of course, as that red tape will be true blue British red tape and beyond criticism!

I am happy to support amendment 36, which would require the Government to publish a list of the legislation being revoked by the sunset clause. That, at least, would simplify comprehensive scrutiny of the legislation affected and any further consequences. Unsurprisingly, the Government are baulking at it, either as a deliberate blocking tactic or—perhaps more likely—because of that special blend of arrogance and exceptionalism that got us into this position in the first place.

On Second Reading, I asked a question of the then Minister, the hon. Member for Watford (Dean Russell), but unsurprisingly I got no answer. The Welsh Government say that they cannot advise the Senedd to grant legislative consent to the Bill at the moment. Can the present Minister tell us whether her colleagues in the other place will now address the Welsh Government’s request for “concurrent-plus” powers?

Energy Security

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Tuesday 29th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I think a mixed provision of energy is extremely important—I have talked about solar, offshore and onshore wind, nuclear, and other sources. The answer is very simple: as has been set out in our energy review, the 10-point plan and elsewhere, where there is local consent, we will ensure that onshore wind can be part of that critical mix. It is a fairly simple principle, which the whole House should be able to unite behind, that local consent is important in these matters. That is the situation that exists, and will continue to exist.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

The role that community renewable energy production could play is currently hampered by an unwieldy regulatory process. Will the Secretary of State bring forward amendments to the Energy Bill to empower community energy schemes to sell their power directly to local companies and customers, thereby also neatly slashing bills?

[Grant Shapps]

The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. We are already doing everything we can to cut that regulatory burden, and my right hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness would be happy to take that conversation forward.

Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Hywel Williams Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 25th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

As we have heard, the Bill threatens environmental, health and industrial protections by casting an enormous shadow of uncertainty. During an economic crisis caused by the current period of Tory turmoil, the Government claim that they seek to promote growth, but the Bill would cause major disruption for businesses and, as the Chair of the Justice Committee said, put even more pressure on an overstretched legal system in settling uncertainties in the law.

There is also a huge cost to people and business, and I will concentrate on the tremendous pressure on the chemical industry, such as the one on Teesside, in complying with Government demands for UK regulations as perfectly workable EU ones are ditched. I am told that implementing the British REACH regulations, which has been demanded by the Government, will not now cost the industry £1 billion because, according to the Chemical Industries Association, the final bill is expected to be several times greater. Given that there is no clarification from Ministers about which laws and regulations they intend to retain, amend, or allow to expire, industries are left in a state of precariousness. Will EU regulations be retained, will they be amended, or will they just be ditched?

An incoming black hole left from the ditching of EU-derived legislation is increasing anxieties for businesses, including those in the chemicals industry. Many Members will know of the REACH—registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals—regulations, which regulate the majority of chemical substances that are manufactured in, or imported to, the country. They are vital for improving the protection of human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals, and for facilitating trade in chemicals across borders. Businesses that make chemical products and solutions are integral to some 96% of all manufactured goods and key ingredients, including for food and life-saving medicines, as well as material for mobile phones and electric vehicle batteries. The industry is calling for an alignment with EU REACH regulations that does not duplicate the efforts and costs already incurred by British businesses. Indeed, it would be unthinkable to do anything that reverses steps towards a better environment.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

Will the hon. Member give way?

[Alex Cunningham]

No, I will leave it, thanks.

Rather than scrapping any chemicals regulation, the industry wants to ensure that the system for managing chemicals is both risk and science-based to ensure a high level of protection for our environment and society. Furthermore, the Bill places at risk the UK’s fulfilment of legal obligations outlined by the trade and co-operation agreement. Should there be a breach of that agreement, the EU could seek to impose tariffs on UK goods, increasing the impact on consumers during a cost of living crisis. The Bill in no way delivers the frictionless trade and consistency that the industry desperately needs. Instead, it creates barriers to trade and is loading billions of pounds in extra costs on an industry that is already under pressure due to the energy crisis.

I also fear the Bill’s impact on investment. It saddens me to say this, but why on earth would a multinational company opt to invest in Britain where business life is so much more complicated and expensive when it could be on the continent of Europe where such impediments do not exist? That is not what people on Teesside who voted in large numbers to leave the EU wanted or expected. I seek assurance from the Minister that he will think again about ditching and minimise any deviation from the EU REACH regulations to protect our chemical and other industries.

The Bill also poses a significant threat to workers’ rights, as the TUC made clear. EU-derived law—we have heard this several times—currently delivers: holiday pay; agency worker rights; data protection rights; protection of terms and conditions for outsourced workers; protection of pregnant workers; rights to maternity and parental leave; and rights relating to working time. In many areas, it is unclear what will happen to the protections that workers currently rely on as a basic necessity.

The legal system could very much do without untold chaos. Where EU-derived legislation is restated by Parliament, previous judgments relating to those instruments will no longer be binding. Issues will have to go through the judicial system yet again. The result will be workers and employers spending more time in court to establish what the law now means.

It is worth reporting that, at the weekend, Sir Jonathan Jones KC, the former head of the Government Legal Department, said:

“I think it is absolutely ideological and symbolic rather than about real policy”.

That is shown particularly by the failure of Ministers to provide answers on which areas will be affected.

The Bill also undermines the sovereignty of Parliament, removing the necessary opportunity for scrutiny and giving unwarranted powers to Ministers to revoke, modify or replace laws through secondary legislation. When people voted to leave the EU and take back control, they did not expect to be handing that control to a small bunch of Tory Ministers to do what they liked. We cannot allow Ministers to commandeer the parliamentary process for untold control, enabling them to change vast swathes of our law. Businesses, environmental groups, legal experts and unions are united on the desire to avoid the complications that the Bill will create.

The fundamental flaw on which the Bill rests is that well-established laws currently offering crucial protections on workers’ rights, businesses and the environment can essentially disappear. The former Business Secretary would have all forms of rights and regulations axed, but his days are over. It is important that the right hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) takes the opportunity to review this madness before it causes unbounded chaos and focuses instead on tackling the real problems that our country faces.

--- Later in debate ---

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

The chaos recently visited on our constituents is yet another episode in the Conservative party’s extended Brexit fugue state. Many Conservative Members saw the last Prime Minister’s accession to Downing Street as an intoxicating chance to shrink the state, to deregulate, and to cut taxes for the very rich. We now know how that ended, when their cravings collided with reality. This bad Bill is a morning-after hangover.

Equally delusional was the idea, peddled hard, that the UK could risk trashing trade with our nearest neighbours while also growing the economy. Brexit is the driving force behind a 5.2% fall in GDP, a 13.7% fall in investment and a drop of 16% in UK-EU trade from what was projected—to which the Bill adds uncertainty and its disincentive effects. One might have thought that that would provoke a change of policy, and from both large parties, given that some on this side of the House dream of making the Tories’ hard Brexit work. Were they ever to find themselves in office, however, they too could not evade the contradictions that are implicit between Brexit and wider economic and social aims.

Another Brexit claim that is crumbling on meeting reality is the claim that leaving the EU was about giving power back to the people. This Bill will transfer large legislative powers from Parliament to Ministers. Earlier, the Minister claimed that the Government’s aim was to co-operate with devolved Governments, but the Bill is yet another assault on our Senedd’s powers, and the powers of the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly. It gives UK Ministers powers to revoke, replace or update secondary retained EU law in devolved areas, subject only to the negative procedure in the House, and in many instances the test for use of these powers will simply be whether a Minister considers it appropriate. Indeed, as was said earlier, the Wales Counsel General has already warned that the Bill would give UK Ministers

“unfettered authority to legislate in devolved areas”,

and inevitably lead to lower standards.

The UK Government have refused a Welsh request for the dashboard of retained EU laws to be updated to identify which legislation is reserved and which is devolved, and how Welsh legislation might be affected. That was a practical suggestion. I recall the pre-devolution days and the structural confusion when every LAC—local authority circular—from Westminster was a WOC, or Wales Office circular, but every WOC was not a LAC. The Government are insisting on further trouble, further chaos and further uncertainty with this Bill. Will the Minister tell us whether that refusal to update the dash- board will be revisited?

Further, that approach undermines the principle that the UK Government should not legislate in devolved areas without the Welsh Government’s consent. In this regard, I draw the House’s attention to an important Bill tabled in the other place by my colleague, Lord Wigley: the Government of Wales (Devolved Powers) Bill. That Bill would enshrine in law the principle that powers devolved to the Senedd should not be amended or withdrawn without a super-majority vote of Senedd Members. Unfortunately, such protections are desperately needed in the face of a Westminster Government who are openly hostile to devolution. In contrast to the Bill before us, protecting the devolution settlement it is not about posturing; it is about powers for a purpose.

This Bill risks creating a regulatory ceiling that would prevent the Welsh Government from strengthening our rights as citizens, as consumers and as workers. Indeed, it only allows for the status quo or a diminishing of those rights. We are at risk of losing hard-won health and safety rights and employment rights derived from, or reinforced by, EU law. Westminster could abandon or modify laws that are crucial to conserving and restoring the natural environment, protections relating to the safety and standards of baby foods, protections for pregnant workers and rights relating to working time, including rights to a maximum weekly working time and paid annual leave. There is much more, and all this is the Government’s Brexit spree. If they are so confident that the Bill is wanted by the people of Wales, why don’t they just call a general election?

Shale Gas Extraction

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Thursday 22nd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

In Wales, we know the cost of dangerous fossil fuel extraction so that others can profit remotely. It is particularly acute today on the anniversary of the Gresford mining disaster, in which 266 men and boys were killed, 200 women were widowed and 800 children were left fatherless. The coal mine was owned by the Westminster and United Collieries Group, which subsequently destroyed the safety records. The men killed remain 2,000 feet down—only 11 bodies were recovered—but Gresford was mooted as a fracking site. Will the Secretary of State confirm that he understands that powers on fracking remain with our Senedd, and that he has no intention of trying to return those powers to Westminster?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am not seeking to upset the devolution settlement.

Employment Law: Devolution to Scotland

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Tuesday 6th September 2022 Westminster Hall

[Angela Crawley]

Absolutely. There was ample opportunity when the Lib Dems were in the coalition to transform employment law, and that did not happen.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

rose—

[Angela Crawley]

I want to make some progress, but I will come back to the hon. Member.

There are more and more people in insecure work, more and more people with insecure wages, and more and more people with insecure rights in the workplace. More people are under-employed, and more people are holding down multiple jobs and yet struggling to support themselves. Sadly, more and more people are struggling to invoke their workplace rights and unionise.

In real terms, that means more people have been plunged into in-work poverty and are unable to rely on stable incomes, which is invaluable to those trying to make headway through what will be a bleak winter for many families as we approach a cost of living crisis. The impact of the pandemic is clear, the impact of Brexit is clear, and the impact of this Government’s stagnation and failure to act is blatant. I call on the UK Government to either act now or let the Scottish Government do so. I would love to have every competence that this Government have to bring forward an employment Bill and transform employment rights. They have failed to do so, and they do not appear to want to.

I was deeply disappointed that there was no commitment in the Queen’s Speech to improve workers’ rights. The decision to shelve the employment Bill represents a missed opportunity for this Government to make serious progress on changing employment law. They have missed the opportunity to update policies on flexible working, carers leave and paid miscarriage leave, which I have argued for time and again. They have failed to strengthen protections against workplace sexual harassment and other equalities protections.

The Minister will recall that I have spent many hours in this place calling for the introduction of paid miscarriage leave. My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow East (David Linden) has pursued relentlessly the right for neonatal leave and pay, and I welcome the Government’s commitment to introduce those measures. I have pursued numerous vehicles in Parliament to try to ensure that the important policy of paid miscarriage leave is introduced but, sadly, I feel I am reaching the end of the road. The policy has cross-party support, yet it has been unable to succeed because of the archaic working practices of this place and this Conservative Government’s failure to commit to legislating on the issue. That reinforces why this system will never work for Scotland. It is becoming clearer by the day that we cannot trust this Conservative Government to prioritise workers’ rights. Instead, we see the further entrenchment of socioeconomic inequality in our society.

Scotland did not vote for Brexit, Scotland did not vote for this Conservative Government—it has not done so for many years—Scotland did not vote for this latest Prime Minister, and Scotland did not vote to roll back workers’ rights and leave the European Union. Yet we find ourselves in a situation where this Government will not act, and our Government want to act but do not have the powers to do so.

[Angela Crawley]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. I know that the hon. Member for Arfon (Hywel Williams) wished to intervene too.

[Hywel Williams]

I will make two brief points. I find strange the argument that multinational companies are somehow unable to adapt their practices to the conditions required by individual independent countries. That is a fallacy and a fiction. Let me also point to a particular reversal of rights, which I will refer to in my speech if I am fortunate enough to be called. The Government have demonstrated their hostility by intending to scrap the Trade Union (Wales) Act 2017—a law passed by our Senedd to protect workers in Wales.

--- Later in debate ---

[Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian) (Alba)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. Like others, I congratulate the hon. Member for Lanark and Hamilton East (Angela Crawley) on securing the debate. I take the view that employment law should have been devolved at the outset and should certainly be devolved now. It is an omission, and it might be worth while to consider why it has not been done to date and why, even when we have reviewed it through Calman, through Smith and at other junctures, change has not been taken.

Some of those who opposed the devolution of employment law at the outset have learned hard lessons and have correctly moved on; others will have to explain why they continue to be intransigent, as has been asked by Members. It seems to me to be an omission from the Scotland Act 1998, but that always was an Act that lacked cohesion. It was neither federalism nor logical, and there was arguably no logic to which matters were reserved. Indeed, matters were devolved summarily, which has left us with a situation whereby the economy is devolved but the fiscal levers that can operate it are not. Criminal justice—I was privileged to serve as Justice Secretary—was devolved, but firearms and narcotics were not. Show me a jurisdiction in the world in which firearms and narcotics are not the basis of criminal law or the breach thereof. We had a situation at the outset where euthanasia was devolved but abortion was reserved. We even had the absurdity that Antarctica and powers over it were devolved but foreign affairs were reserved. I do not know anybody in any political party who ever sought for Scotland to have a say over Antarctica.

[Hywel Williams]

I just want to add a pertinent comment. When further devolution was being considered for Wales, water was to be retained in London and sewerage was to be devolved.

[Kenny MacAskill]

That shows the illogicality of the current devolved set-up.

We obviously have seen changes—some have come through Smith, some have come through Calman and some have come through other ways. We now have air weapons devolved, even though firearms are reserved. We have the drink-driving limit devolved, although road traffic remains reserved. Indeed, abortion has since been devolved in order to join with euthanasia as powers within the Scottish Parliament. During my tenure as Justice Secretary, the Scottish tribunal service was established. It became the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, having previously been the Scottish Court Service and Tribunal Service. At the head of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service sits Lord Carloway, who is the Lord President and the very pinnacle of the judicial system in Scotland. Beneath that, we have tribunals being operated and run in Scotland, yet many of their most fundamental aspects—the law, legislation and regulations—are reserved to Westminster. That makes no logical sense; indeed, it is absurd.

More citizens appear before a tribunal than ever appear before a court of law, yet the tribunal that Scots are most likely to go to in order to seek recompense, change or whatever it is—some aspect of justice—is led by the senior Scottish judiciary, but the organs and levers are controlled. It should have been devolved, and it should be devolved now, because it is essential. We have a new Prime Minister, who has already laid down where she sees things going. I think that is fundamentally wrong, because we cannot go backwards.

I recently read a book about a radical MP called Joseph Hume, who had served in Middlesex, Montrose and Killarney—not in Wales. He came to fame because he opposed the Combination Acts 1799 and 1800. The Combination Acts were legislation that did not outlaw striking; they outlawed the right of workers to organise. They predated laws that came in through Keir Hardie and others. That was not in the 1930s; it was in the 1830s. Joseph Hume opposed the Combination Acts, which existed before Queen Victoria came to power, yet we have an incoming Prime Minister who, in 2022, is talking about ruling out strikes and attacking the fundamental rights of workers to organise. Under the new Administration, we are going back not to the 1930s, but to the 1830s—whether or not employment law is devolved.

Enough is enough. The Prime Minister will have to recognise that whether it comes from law changes in Holyrood, as it should, or from actions in defence to legislative changes here in Westminster, workers ain’t going to take it any more. The changes to be brought in have already seen the likes of the RMT, Unite and the Communication Workers Union out on strike. It is about not just wages, but terms and conditions of employment. We know that, in the fundamental RMT dispute, it is not simply a wage that workers are seeking—not the figures of £55,000 that are bandied about, because the average RMT worker gets nothing like that. It is also about the fundamental terms and conditions: the reduction in workers, making those who remain work longer and reducing the terms of their safety. Enough is enough. It is unacceptable.

I conclude by saying that employment law should have been devolved at the outset, and it should most certainly be devolved now. Irrespective of that, the fight is on. The current Administration may try to bring changes in and use the powers they have here, but those changes will be opposed in Scotland and across the country.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

It is a pleasure to serve again under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. Apropos of the list the hon. Member for East Lothian (Kenny MacAskill) gave earlier on, in Wales, we have a legislature that does not have its own jurisdiction, as the jurisdiction is retained in England and Wales. Wales is peculiar in that respect and, possibly, unique in the world.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Lanark and Hamilton East (Angela Crawley) on securing this important debate and on her dedicated work campaigning for paid miscarriage leave. Like others, she has set out the case for devolving employment law to Scotland very effectively, and many of those arguments apply equally to the question of the devolution of employment law in Wales. I will refer to both countries in my remarks.

The tedious tit-for-tat we have seen in the last weeks and months around the Conservative leadership contest has demonstrated that Scotland and, even more so, Wales are very much an afterthought for Westminster. Our workers would be better protected by laws made in Scotland by Scotland’s Parliament and in Wales by our Senedd. As I said earlier, the situation was made clear when, in June, the UK Government announced their intention to scrap the Trade Union (Wales) Act—a law that was passed by our Senedd in Wales to protect Welsh workers. The UK Government’s response was to announce their intention to scrap it, demonstrating not only their disregard for Welsh workers, but their disrespect for devolution. We have, of course, seen moves to reverse devolution entirely consistent with the argument I am making.

In this regard, I should draw the Chamber’s attention to the Government of Wales (Devolved Powers) Bill, introduced in the other place by my friend and predecessor as hon. Member for Arfon, now Lord Wigley. This important Bill would enshrine in law the principle that powers devolved to the Senedd should

“not be amended or withdrawn without a super-majority vote”

of Senedd Members, which would introduce a safeguard—in the short term, at least—against the sorts of action proposed by the UK Government. The Bill is scheduled for Second Reading on Friday. Despite the Westminster Government’s hostile attitude to devolution, further devolution and to devolution as a process—one that, I would say, is one way, not two way—I hope that Lord Wigley’s Bill will, in due course, come before us in the Commons.

Returning to the question before us, devolving employment law to the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd would allow the introduction of an enhanced package of support for workers, which, as others have said, could include paid bereavement leave and miscarriage leave as day one employment rights, outlawing fire and rehire tactics and bringing in properly funded carers’ leave. A further priority for employment law in Wales and, I am sure, in Scotland would be shared parental leave, which is key to enabling more equal parenting, tackling endemic pregnancy and maternity discrimination in the workplace and ending the gender pay gap.

As has already been said, in 2017, amid concerns that uptake of shared parental leave was low, the UK Government indicated that they wanted to re-evaluate the scheme. On 15 July 2022, the newly appointed Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the hon. Member for Loughborough (Jane Hunt), told MPs that the Government were evaluating the scheme and would publish findings in due course. We are still waiting for those findings, so I would say to the Minister and any new Minister—devolve the power to a legislature that will act. For what is already clear is that this policy on maternity leave is failing. Using data obtained by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions, Maternity Action has calculated that since April 2015 just 47,000 of the 2.95 million new mothers who took statutory paid maternity leave have used shared parental leave to transfer some of their paid leave to the child’s father or other parent. That is just 1.6%. That is the measure of a policy that is quite clearly failing.

One of the main problems with the scheme, as well as the current flat rate of £156.66 per week, is that a parent must transfer the maternity leave entitlement to the partner. That transferability makes the scheme extremely complex and consequentially poorly understood by both employers and parents. There is also the question of eligibility with at least a third of working new fathers failing to meet the qualifying conditions because of their level of pay or employment type. In Wales we have a great deal of low pay and self-employment is a very common pattern. What we need, and what I believe we would get if powers were devolved, is a system based on individual non-transferable rights for each parent to have leave.

There are solutions for the problems that I and other hon. Members have identified today. What is missing is the political will to act. The incoming Prime Minister has signalled that she will restrict workers’ rights collectively to secure fairer employment. Wales’s Senedd and Scotland’s Parliament, empowered with the ability to legislate for employment law, would do things differently, and I sincerely believe that we would do things better.

Employment Agencies and Trade Unions

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Monday 11th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jane Hunt]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his question, which I will take up a little later on in my speech.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way so early on. How does she justify overturning the Trade Union (Wales) Act 2017, which bans the use of agency workers in devolved services, and therefore the intention to overturn the consequences of Welsh democracy?

--- Later in debate ---

[Angela Rayner]

My hon. Friend makes an absolutely crucial point. The Government have been promising jam tomorrow for far too long, saying “employment Bill”, “employment Bill,” but guess what? No employment Bill. That is what it is like with this Government: it is all jam tomorrow and broken promises all the way.

There is another point to make. Under section 12 of the Employment Agencies Act 1973, the Government must consult before they change any regulation. However, with all the chaos of the past couple of weeks and days, they are trying to pass a consultation from 2015 that they never even completed. They also thought that it would be acceptable to sneak out an updated impact assessment on the day of the debate. This is government on the back of a fag packet, with no time and no opportunity for scrutiny. It is typical of what we have come to expect from this Government.

[Hywel Williams]

I pointed out to the Minister that the Government are determined to repeal the Trade Union (Wales) Act. She said she would refer to her position on that later in her speech but, unsurprisingly, she failed to do so. Will the shadow Minister commit a future Labour Westminster Government to reinstate our Senedd’s ability to implement a ban on agency staff in devolved services?

[Angela Rayner]

I thank the hon. Member for his point. I promise him that the Labour party will always support Welsh devolution and support the Wales Government in what they have been trying to achieve. Actually, as we have seen with the industrial action on the railway, we have avoided that in Wales, where we have a Welsh Labour Government, because Labour Members respect devolution. This Government want to break up the Union with their petty squabbles, sleaze and scandal.

Let me move on to the second motion. I congratulate the Minister’s new team on finding one of the lesser-known industrial regulations. It is funny that the Government are proposing to increase fourfold the damages that could be claimed under a measure that has not even been used. The Conservative party is wasting precious parliamentary time in a week when piles of legislation have had to be postponed due to there being no Minister to deal with them. This is an empty gesture or a threat. Whether the Minister and her party like it or not, everybody has the right to join a trade union in this country and to take strike action. This measure is either pointless or yet another attempt to undermine that right by the back door.

Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 7th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

It is both telling and deeply disappointing that it has taken a vicious and horrific conflict to bring us to this point of closing down the London laundromat.

I am speaking on behalf of my party rather than proposing any specific amendments, so I shall be very brief. I welcome amendments 42 to 44, tabled by the right hon. Member for Barking (Dame Margaret Hodge), to toughen penalties for non-compliance with the register. We see this as a necessary precondition to increase the immediate costs of non-compliance with UK law. We will also be supporting the right hon. Member’s new clauses 2 and 3.

Past actions, including the much-trumpeted unexplained wealth orders, have done little to dent Russian influence in London, partly owing to the Government’s poor resourcing of enforcement agencies. New clause 2 would bring long overdue scrutiny of that significant weakness, and renewed support for our enforcement agencies. As the Russia report made clear, illicit money does not simply flow into London and the UK by its own volition; it is eased in by a wide network of enablers, from bankers to lawyers to estate agents—Russia’s little helpers in stashing ill-gotten gains and off-the-shelf influence. That is why we will also be supporting new clause 3, as well as amendment 41, tabled by my SNP colleagues, in order to curb the ability of shell companies and other indirect ownership instruments, as well as their paid London enablers, to obfuscate ownership structures for their clients. Those measures, along with new clauses 4 and 9, will tighten the massive loophole that prevents us from having a properly resourced, properly empowered and properly directed Companies House.

New clause 21 would help to address the issue of enforcement in Crown dependencies and British overseas territories. My hon. Friend the Member for Ceredigion (Ben Lake) has already raised with the Foreign Secretary the issue of the enforcement of sanctions in overseas territories such as Bermuda, where more than 700 Russian civilian aircraft are registered. We hope that new clause 21 will bring clarity to this long-standing grey area of enforcement.

However, none of this matters if the targets of the Bill are able to make off with their loot in the next few weeks. I therefore urge the Government to work with the Opposition, and to support new clauses 28 and 30 to ensure that the sanctions and the powers work to the maximum possible effect.

[Dame Angela Eagle]

I support all the amendments that are intended to close loopholes in this long-overdue legislation, narrowing the gap between the Government’s rhetoric and the reality of what it is possible for them to do, strengthening the legislation, and ensuring that we have transparency so that we know who owns what, so that people can indeed be sanctioned, and so that their progress across our financial system can be followed in a meaningful way to make sanctions a reality. I also support new clauses 7 and 2, which seek to beef up enforcement.

Today, we in the Treasury Committee heard that the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has 37.8 full-time equivalent staff. I put it to the Government that that is not nearly enough for us to make sanctions against Russia workable and effective. We also learned recently that the National Crime Agency had no Russian speakers. I am not sure how it is meant to pursue sanctions against Russia if it does not have anyone with the appropriate language skills to do so. I hope that it will be beefing up its enforcement activities as well.

We understand and support what the Government are trying to do with this legislation. It is long overdue, and we think it needs to be strengthened. The bewildering and fragmented nature of enforcement, and its underfunding, must be put right if we are to get to the stage where we can finally deal with the corruption of our financial system and its infiltration by those authoritarian regimes and kleptocrats who are putting our democracy at risk, and who, even as we are having this debate, are murdering and bombing innocent people in Ukraine and threatening the peace and prosperity of Europe and the world. I hope that the Government will listen and accept a lot of these amendments by the time the Bill comes back to this House in due course.

Research and Development Funding

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Wednesday 17th March 2021 Westminster Hall

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC) [V]]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Mr Dowd. I thank the hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) for his interesting and comprehensive speech, and for arranging a debate on this important issue.

Research and development underpins our economic resilience, our global competitiveness and our progress towards a sustainable and climate-friendly future. The UK has always been a centre for research excellence, and Wales has played a foundational role in driving innovation across the UK. Wales is home to eight universities, including Bangor University in my own constituency of Arfon, and—as you would expect me to say, Mr Dowd—Bangor is a leading centre of excellence across the disciplines, in fields as diverse as social science, forestry and psychology. Wales has long driven innovation, from producing the historic first hydrogen fuel cell in 1842, to innovations reflected in the work of leading Welsh companies such as Riversimple. I hope that the Minister can confirm today the protection of funding for Bangor University’s research into agricultural microplastics and the consequences for food security and sustainable development in developing countries.

Welsh research has global implications, with Welsh-based researchers active in many countries, not least in the developing world. Perhaps the only really welcome aspect of yesterday’s grandiose integrated review was the commitment to return spending on overseas development to 0.7% of the UK’s national income. That, of course, was qualified, but I assure the House that I will do what I can to encourage the Government to return to their commitment, as set out in law by a previous Conservative Government. I hope you will allow me to say, Mr Dowd, that I was dismayed by that particular cut in the midst of a global pandemic. It is a cut in aid to those in conflict zones such as Yemen, where British-made weapons and systems are causing and compounding untold suffering. More positively, overseas development assistance also supports research by universities across the UK to advance our global progress towards achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals. As I said, I hope that the Government can confirm that funding for Bangor is protected.

From supporting sustainable development to ensuring our global competitiveness, research and development funding is pivotal to sustainability and productivity in our economy. That is why Plaid Cymru welcomed the UK Government’s commitment to raise R&D spending to 2.4% of GDP by 2024, yet the same regional inequalities that split our economy, favouring London and the south-east, are reflected in how the UK Government support research and development. In 2018, while R&D spending was £587 per head in England, it plummeted to just £250 in Wales—in other words, the level of research on R&D in Wales was just 42% of that in England. I have no doubt that this is linked, to a degree, to the low level of investment and ambition by the Labour Welsh Government, but it also reflects the huge concentration of public spending in the golden triangle of London, Oxford, and—with due respect to the local Member—Cambridge. For instance, in 2018 London and the south-east received 49% of total R&D spending from the UK Government and UK Research and Innovation.

Such inequalities have also extended to the UK Government’s fiscal interventions, which of course have profound implications for research. Between 2015 and 2018, only 210 businesses in Wales benefited from the enterprise investment scheme. That is why I urge the UK Government to acknowledge that, if the rhetoric of levelling up is to have any substance, they should immediately commit to equitable funding, not least in research and development, for otherwise marginalised economies such as we have in Wales. Anything else would prove that, in yet another respect, the UK just does not work for Wales.

Employment Rights: Government Plans

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Monday 25th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC) [V]]

This Government, like all Tory Governments, have an obsession with the supposed need for deregulation. It is not just a reasonable concern with promoting what works, while respecting and protecting employees—were it just that, we would not be here tonight. Rather, it is an article of faith and impossible to disprove to the true believer. We have some sensible, proportionate, humane regulation of work, but it is not sufficient, and there is the possibility of an individual member state opting out. The UK, even while in the European Union, was the member state making the most use of that opt-out provision. Still, the true believers say it is not enough; Opposition Members are protesting too much, and the Government have no plans to reduce workers’ rights. But we must measure the value of this Government’s word against their dire real-world performance—the promises made, the reassurances given and the piffle deployed. By that measure, reality is already trumping bluster, so anyone but the true believer would be naive to take them at their word.

I would be happy enough to be proved wrong, of course. The review, now apparently abandoned, might have given my constituents in low-paid, insecure extensive and intensive jobs some relief. I share their concern for protecting the working time directive, the right to paid annual leave, proper breaks from work and all the rest of it, and protection from fire and rehire. If, however, this abandonment is in fact just a tactical pause, may I suggest a few topics for a future review? It might consider why the UK is not following the international trend towards lower working hours. It might look at how many low-paid workers in insecure, long-hours jobs are also doing another job, just to make ends meet. It might consider why parental leave is so insufficient, or it might assess the contribution of breaks, minimum rest periods and leave from work to promoting productivity and preventing employee burn-out.

It might consider those things among a host of other matters, so as to achieve the Secretary of State’s stated aim of a “really high standard” for workers, but I am not confident that a review by this Government would address those important matters. Rather, this looks like a side-step towards the real aim: that of creating a low-wage, low-regulation, free-for-all economy where the cats are truly fat and weakness is a licence to exploit.

UK Internal Market: White Paper

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

My hon. Friend will know that professional qualifications will be covered under mutual recognition, which is good news for service sectors across the United Kingdom, but particularly in the City of London.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC) [V]]

Thirty-five years ago, in 1985, the then Tory European Commissioner’s White Paper detailed 300 legislative proposals to complete the European single market, and that was with a seven-year deadline. On the UK internal market, this Tory Government are giving a four-week consultation over the summer. That is persuasive evidence, were it needed, that the UK internal market is first and foremost a convenient headline—a veneer lacking detail or a legal basis. Will the Secretary of State concede that the only certainty is that this Bill is a power grab retaining—yes, retaining—vast powers over devolved areas to Tory Ministers?

[Alok Sharma]

No, this is not a power grab. As I have said, this is a power surge to the devolved Administrations. The hon. Gentleman talks about the consultation. I can tell him that the consultation follows the principles for a Government consultation. Yes, it is for a four-week period, but very many people and, in particular, businesses do not routinely close down over the summer. I would say to him that there is an opportunity for him and others to feed in to this consultation. I know this will be important for him and he will do it in a far shorter period time than four weeks.