Draft United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 (Services Exclusions) Regulations 2023

Rushanara Ali Excerpts

Wednesday 25th October 2023 General Committees

[Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Elliott. I want to start by thanking officials for their hard work in trying to create the best possible outcomes from a difficult starting point. Members will be aware of the tortuous route that has led to this moment. On Second Reading, my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Central (Lucy Powell) called it the “infernal market Bill”, and I am sure she spoke for a lot of people in doing so. However, we are where we are.

Two principles should guide us, and the Minister has referred to them. One is that we must support the various trades and businesses specified in the statutory instrument, from audio-visual to medical and healthcare services and legal and notarial services. This panoply of service-based businesses is essential to the functioning of UK plc. Each, in a way, helps the country to tick over, and they are essential to the growth and prosperity that we desperately need in our economy and have been lacking for too long. The UK internal market is crucial to ensuring equality of opportunity, preventing discrimination and ensuring certainty for business and mutual recognition, no matter where businesses or services are located in the United Kingdom.

Even where some of the trades listed in part 1 of schedule 2 to the UKIM Act might require close regulation and transparency—for example, debt collection and gambling services—those businesses have a right to operate under the law, with proper regard for ethical considerations, and they need to be covered by the wider framework without friction in terms of their operation. We wish to see all the services listed in part 1 free from unnecessary barriers to trade within the United Kingdom.

The second principle is that we support devolution within the framework of the United Kingdom. It was the last Labour Government who accelerated the devolution settlement, which has served us well for over two decades. Devolution is a process, not an event, as the late, much missed Donald Dewar dubbed it, but it must never be a process that leads to the break-up of the United Kingdom. The UK remains stronger for its unity between Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland, and nothing should endanger that. We do not support anything that creates unnecessary barriers to trade within the United Kingdom. As such, we will not oppose the Government on this matter, but we will keep a close eye on the real-world consequences for businesses in the coming months and years.

The Minister said that there has been some dialogue with the devolved Governments but there are outstanding issues. I urge the Government to seek consent from all the devolved authorities, to ensure that we maintain unity and fluidity throughout the UK internal market and that there is proper co-operation and dialogue between our Government and the devolved authorities.