Product Safety and Metrology etc. (Amendment etc.) (UK (NI) Indication) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Lord Empey Excerpts

Friday 27th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey (UUP) [V]]

The noble Lord, Lord Moylan, made some interesting points at the end of his contribution. The Minister, during his introduction, referred to the UK being a sovereign independent nation once again. However, how can someone from Northern Ireland feel part of that sovereign independent nation when, for several weeks and months in this House, we have been passing secondary legislation that distinguishes us from the rest of the United Kingdom? We are talking today about marks, and the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, makes valid points, but the fact that they are there illustrates the differences that have been created between different parts of the United Kingdom.

As is common to a number of these SIs, the impact assessment refers to how

“relevant EU legislation will continue to apply to Northern Ireland by virtue of the Protocol.”

It is as if the protocol is some kind of wonderful achievement. As far as I am concerned, it is a dagger pointed at the heart of the union, and the fact that we are having these discussions and making these differences illustrates that.

We are now going to have to pile more work and burdens on to our businesses and manufacturers. We are creating a situation where you can run the CE label with the other label for a year. What happens if, over time, differences in standards emerge? Whose standards will prevail? Will it be the Brussels or the UK standard? What will happen if a product made in Northern Ireland falls foul of the regulations that apply in Great Britain? There are no answers to these questions.

The Government have consistently refused to accept the fact that what they have done with the protocol is to turn Northern Ireland into virtually an overseas territory of the European Union with its own set of discrete pieces of legislation. The regulatory regime is to be left in the hands of Brussels. We are still subject to state aid rules where Great Britain will not be, and we have a huge pile of problems that will arise in the next few weeks whereby every tin of baked beans that comes into Northern Ireland will have to be notified to the authorities in advance and be subject to inspection. How under these circumstances, can the Minister maintain that we are in any sense on an equal footing with our colleagues in the rest of the United Kingdom?