Treaty Scrutiny: Working Practices (EUC Report)

Lord Moynihan Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2020 Grand Committee

[Lord Moynihan (Con)]

My Lords, the consequences of the imminent prospect of the UK having an independent trade policy at the end of the year have been well covered by the noble Lord, Lord Purvis.

As has been pointed out, the EU Parliament has been the principal scrutiny body for the many treaties and international agreements negotiated and ratified by the EU, and it is clear that Parliament should now have the additional powers to ensure additional scrutiny of the treaties and international agreements that the UK will enter into in future. This is all the more important because the nature of debate and scrutiny of all legislation in the current living-with-Covid environment has been reduced to a substantial restriction of accountability to Parliament and of the ways in which we would normally hold the Government of the day to account. However, Covid-19 and living in a post-Covid-19 world is not the principal argument in favour of further change to the CRaG framework.

In its excellent report, the Constitution Committee rightly observed that treaty scrutiny, under the function of the Government under royal prerogative and subject to the negative resolution process, has not moved with the times. Treaties now cover far more than broad principles of international relations, encompassing detailed public policy issues—issues that must be subject to detailed scrutiny by Parliament.

For example, one of the sectors in which I specialise, sports policy, is relevant in this context because it is the field in which the EU’s responsibilities were first introduced into treaty obligations under the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2009. This demonstrates clearly the way in which treaties have now descended into the detail of sectoral policy. In the immediate aftermath of the Lisbon treaty, a specific budget line was established for the first time under the Erasmus+ programme. Article 165 referred to the specificity of sport and Article 165(2)(b) refers to

“developing the European dimension in sport by”,

inter alia,

“protecting the physical and moral integrity of sportsmen and sportswomen, especially the youngest”—

a catch-all clause that could be interpreted to cover the criminalisation of doping, for example.

The Bosman case, the tripartite agreement—which is critical to the free, unimpeded movement of racehorses across the borders between France, Ireland and the United Kingdom; without it, Cheltenham and the Derby meetings would be decimated—international agreements that cover competitive professional football, the criteria under which players can move from club to club and the number of players permitted under the Cotonou agreement to play in individual professional sports in this country are all covered by treaty and are critical to the continued smooth running of professional sport. Any changes will have far-reaching consequences.

Where treaties and international agreements continue to descend the political waterfall into the minutiae of sectoral policy, I ask the Government to consider going considerably further than recommending that the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act provides adequate scrutiny. Systematic parliamentary consideration beyond committee consideration is essential as we move forward, so that Parliament can undertake its key role of holding the Executive to account. All three reports are very much welcomed. I hope that the Government’s response will be sympathetic and urgent.