Draft Economic Growth (Regulatory Functions) Order 2017 Draft Growth Duty Statutory Guidance

Patrick Grady Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2017 General Committees

[Bill Esterson]

rose—

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

rose—

[The Chair]

I call Bill Esterson.

--- Later in debate ---

[Patrick Grady]

It is a pleasure, Mr Brady, to speak in this debate. If we are having fun with the procedures now, just imagine the joys that await us when the legislative avalanche of the great repeal Bill hits, with all the statutory instruments and delegated legislation Committees required to extract us from Brexit over the coming however many years.

I accept the Government’s good intentions behind the orders, but I would caution that growth is not an end in itself and neither are regulations always, by definition, a bad thing. Indeed, as my colleague from the Labour party was saying, if growth is of the kind that the Prime Minister seems to be threatening by turning the UK into some sort of tax haven if she does not get her way in the Brexit negotiations, it is, in fact, counter-productive. A race to the bottom has all kinds of societal impacts that are not automatically to the good or for the benefit of everyone.

I would encourage the Government to look at the Scottish Government’s approach to these issues. The Scottish Government have a stated corporate purpose to create

“a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth.”

It is not just growth as an end in itself that, by definition, must be a good thing. We need a sustainable economic growth that makes sure that the benefits are felt across society. Under the First Minister, there is an emphasis within that measure and the accompanying national performance framework on tackling inequality, so that growth is a driver to social ends. The social ends are not just a happy benefit that may or may not come about as a result of growth driven for whatever purpose.

I would echo the questions from the Labour spokesperson: it would be useful to have some examples of when the Government think regulations have got in the way of economic growth and stopped the economy growing. How do the Government expect regulators to attain the regard being asked for in the statutory instrument? In particular—the hon. Member for Sefton Central touched on this toward the end of his contribution—is this not in itself a form of regulation? We are regulating the regulator, so how are duplication, over-complication and bureaucracy going to be avoided?