Draft Social Security (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 Draft Social Security (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

Mike Amesbury Excerpts

Thursday 20th December 2018 General Committees

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

It is of course a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I am happy to confirm that we shall not be opposing the regulations—and I wish everyone a merry Christmas and happy new year. However, we seek assurances on the detail.

I thank my colleagues in the other place for their scrutiny of the regulations. As they and the Minister have noted, they enable the Government to make minor and technical changes to domestic legislation to reflect the fact that the UK will no longer be an EU member state after exit day. I do not want to speculate at this stage about the likelihood of such an outcome, or the manner of arriving at it, but it is reasonable that the Government prepare as is necessary and appropriate. As shadow Employment Minister, however, I cannot help but reflect that, while we need to undertake the specific task before us today, the social security system needs far more than minor or technical changes. It is a shame that we are spending the last sitting day before Christmas discussing the odd word here and there, rather than delivering a wholesale stop, reform and fix of universal credit and the flawed managed migration approach and timetable.

As my colleague Lord McKenzie has noted,

“these instruments fall into two groups. They amend various provisions in UK domestic legislation that contain references to the UK as a member state of the EU, or of the EEA. Further, they amend Section 179 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and its Northern Ireland equivalent to enable social security-related reciprocal agreements to be entered into with international organisations.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 4 December 2018; Vol. 794, c. 954.]

In that regard, Lord McKenzie noted that the explanatory memorandum “instances the EU”, but asked whether the Minister could state what other international organisations might be “in contemplation”. Baroness Buscombe responded that she would write with more detail. Has that response been sent, or can the Minister provide a brief update? In a similar vein, Baroness Buscombe also promised to write in relation to any existing reciprocal arrangements with the EU, and we would welcome an update from the Minister about that.

There are also concerns about how the regulations apply to Northern Ireland, as other hon. Members have noted. The explanatory memorandum claims that the legislation will be progressed

“in close consultation with the Northern Ireland departments.”

We must remember that the voters of Northern Ireland are represented by politicians of different parties and traditions. In the absence of a functioning Executive, we are keen to hear further about what processes have been undertaken to ensure full, broad consultation.

The explanatory memorandum also confirms that the Minister states that, given that the Equality Act 2010 does not extend to Northern Ireland, he has given

“due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation”.

Again, while we do not seek to contest that, we would welcome some detail on why he is comfortable in stating that it does so, to assure us that the decision has been arrived at in a reasonable manner.

As has been mentioned, the regulations make minor, technical amendments and we do not intend to oppose them. However, they are further evidence, if more were needed, of the technical complexity of Brexit. I am sure that there will be many more such Committees in the near future and we would welcome clarification from the Minister as to what plans and engagement are in place, through the Department for Work and Pensions, to ensure that services continue appropriately and that people are made aware of any changes to their entitlements in the case of no deal.

I finish as I began, by reflecting that the social security system that we are discussing deserves parliamentary attention and change beyond what is on the agenda today. We will support these regulations in so far as they are necessary to ensure an appropriate exit from the EU when that time comes, but we do so believing that we should be having a different debate on a more wide-ranging and substantive piece of legislation—to stop, fund and fix universal credit and our broken social security system. We hope that the new year brings that opportunity.