Draft Official Controls (Amendment) Regulations 2024

Jim Allister Excerpts

Wednesday 8th January 2025 General Committees

[Jim Allister (North Antrim) (TUV)]

Regulation 2017/625 goes to the very heart of the territorial integrity of this United Kingdom. Under the protocol and the Windsor framework, Northern Ireland is subject to all that regulation’s controls. Our High Court in Belfast, as endorsed by the Court of Appeal, has said that the effect of the regulation is to make Northern Ireland the entry point to the EU.

The constitutional significance of that is immense, because it means that when you leave Great Britain and go to the other part of the United Kingdom—Northern Ireland—you are in effect entering the EU, when it comes to all the laws pertaining to goods. You are entering the single market—the EU’s regime and customs code—hence the EU’s insistence on the Irish sea border to distinguish and to give effect to the fact that, under this regulation, when you move from GB to Northern Ireland, you are entering EU territory.

Regulation 2017/625 is fundamental to the people who I represent in Northern Ireland, because it puts in lights the fact that we are no longer a full, proper part of the United Kingdom. What the Minister outlined today partly illustrates that. If Committee members look at regulation 14(b), which we are considering today, they will see that it expressly talks about consignments entering not the United Kingdom, but Great Britain. Why is that? It is because, as I have said, Northern Ireland is now deemed to be EU territory in those terms.

Under the Windsor framework, therefore, this Government and their predecessor, having surrendered those powers to the EU under regulation 2017/625, cannot provide for the entry of consignments of goods to the United Kingdom; they can provide for the entry of consignments of goods only to Great Britain. Where are those entry points? One of them, of course, is that which divides—the crossing of the Irish sea from Northern Ireland.

Regulation 14(b) underscores the fact that we have partitioned our United Kingdom with a foreign regulatory border. It reflects the fact that all this Parliament can now do, under the Windsor framework, is make regulations for consignments of goods entering GB. Consignments of goods entering GB, because they are coming from EU territory, have to be subject to documentary checks or an inspection.

When the Windsor framework was first sold to the people of Northern Ireland, it was presented as affecting the flow of goods only from GB to Northern Ireland. Now we see that, in effect, it will equally apply to the flow of goods from Northern Ireland to GB. I would like to hear from the Minister where those checks are going to be on consignments coming from a part of the United Kingdom to the mainland of the United Kingdom. Can the Minister tell us that? That comes on top of the quite audacious suggestion that there should be checks at all on goods being brought from one part of the United Kingdom to another.

Once again, this is a regulation that puts the spotlight on how far my part of the United Kingdom has been pushed out of the United Kingdom and into and under EU control. In consequence, the Parliament of the United Kingdom is now unable or unwilling to legislate for the passage of goods from one part of the United Kingdom to another. That is what you are being asked to do here today. I, for one, do not think that that is in any sense constitutionally, politically or economically acceptable.

[The Chair]

May I point out that “you” refers to the Chair?

[Daniel Zeichner]

I am grateful for the contributions made by Members and for the support of the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Keighley and Ilkley, whose positive response I welcome. This is important work, and a sensible approach is being taken.

I also hear the points made by the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim. I reassure him that essentially what we propose in the draft regulations is absolutely consistent with all the commitments already set out in the Windsor framework, including continuing to guarantee that qualifying Northern Ireland goods will have unfettered access to the Great British market.

[Jim Allister]

How can there be unfettered access from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, as is assured in the words of the Windsor framework, if, at the same time, regulation 14 provides for checks on goods coming into Great Britain, which must include goods coming from Northern Ireland? How can there be unfettered access if goods are subject to checks?

[Daniel Zeichner]

I am grateful for the points made by the hon. and learned Member. He will appreciate that we are trying to resolve a complicated set of circumstances and make them work. These measures are a genuine attempt to make the system work for everybody’s benefit. I appreciate the complex issues that he raises, but I do not believe that these measures make any substantial difference to them.

The draft regulations remove the reliance on temporary measures, implementing a responsive, risk-based imports approach to protect the United Kingdom from emerging pests and diseases while supporting businesses with processes that are as simple and effective as possible. I commend them to the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.