Windsor Framework (Retail Movement Scheme: Plant Health) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Lord Empey Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, perfectly obviously, this is dynamic alignment in practice. Turning to the minutiae, I look forward to the Minister’s pronunciation of the various micro-organisms dealt with in this SI, and I am sure she will rise to the occasion.

There is a serious point, and I have asked her about this on a number of occasions. A review of the trade and co-operation agreement is due in 2026. What have we done on that? A whole apparatus has been created as a result of the Windsor Framework, but the amount of potential risk to the single market is so infinitesimal that it is barely measurable, in terms of the volume of goods that could cross the border. If people on the island were properly organised under our own legislation, you could spot a mile away anybody who was attempting to damage the European single market.

That has never been the objective of the United Kingdom. We can prevent it. In fact, we can make it an offence for anybody in the United Kingdom to go out of their way to breach the rules of the European Union. It has a right to protect its single market, but we have a right to protect the United Kingdom. I just ask the Minister: what have the Government done and put on the table with regard to the review of the trade and co-operation agreement that is due this year?