Medical Devices (Northern Ireland Protocol) Regulations 2021

Lord Empey Excerpts

Monday 12th July 2021 Grand Committee

[Lord Empey (UUP) [V]]

My Lords, in his introduction, my noble friend the Minister talked about upholding the protocol and upholding the Belfast agreement. I say to my noble friend that the protocol, and what is flowing from it, including what we have before us today, drives a stake through the heart of the agreement because it breaches one of the fundamental principles—but that is an argument for another day.

The Minister also referred to enforcement regulations. What we are trying to do here is to circumvent the imposition of rules and regulations on these devices that will be made by the European Union and ratified by the European Parliament as we move forward. We will have no say or role in any of that—neither will the Minister—so we are trying to pretend that we are not simply rule-takers here. We are trying to indicate that we are doing something that will have an impact and minimise the damage. That is basically what this is about.

I would like to know from the Minister what the future will hold. The United Kingdom and the European Union basically start off on the same page, because we spent 43 years as part of that union and were involved in all the standards that were set up until this point, but those will diverge over time. I want to know from the Minister what his and the Government’s approach will be if, over time, these regulations start to diverge.

We saw on the vaccine issue that the European regulatory regime operated at a much slower pace than our own, here in the United Kingdom. What would be the implications in future if devices were conceived and made available in Great Britain, under whatever rules might apply, but had not been accepted in the European Union? Would people living in Northern Ireland not get access to such devices in future? That is at the core of our concerns over this and a whole range of other items that will arise from the protocol.