EU: Imports

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Tuesday 1st February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (Con)]

Your Lordships are very kind to ask me to take a second bite at the cherry, but I do not have anything to add to my Answer.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, with the 12-mile queues on the A20 in Kent last week, the Commons Transport Committee took evidence from the Transport Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Vere, who is in her place. The chair of the committee raised the concern that, with more checks and bureaucracy, there will be 17-mile queues. He asked which Government Minister is responsible for liaising with the European Union, and the noble Baroness replied:

“Not me. It is a fairly complicated picture.”


The chair said:

“Assume it is the role of the Home Office, which I would have thought it would be if it is to do with borders”.


The noble Baroness, Lady Vere, replied:

“And Trade. It might be Trade’s role as well because it is about customs checks; it could be HMRC.”


The chair said:

“It could be the Foreign Office. I suppose that is my concern.”


Well, my concern is that no one is in charge. Who is in charge?

[Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (Con)]

My Lords, first, on the queues at Dover last week mentioned by the noble Lord, it is not the case that those short-term delays to freight movements were caused by new customs procedures. I am reliably informed that the primary cause was ship refitting, which reduced capacity across the short straits, and higher than expected freight volumes. On the noble Lord’s main point, I assure him that all Ministers properly co-ordinate with each other on these matters.