Draft Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Ruth Jones Excerpts

Monday 23rd October 2023 General Committees

[Ruth Jones (Newport West) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Mrs Latham, and thank you for calling me in what I suspect will be a very brief sitting. It is good to see the Minister in her place; it is obviously a very busy day for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the Chamber and here.

I want to start by saying that the Opposition will not oppose the draft regulations, which I am sure will be a huge relief to the Minister. As she indicated, the purpose of the instrument is to correct a technical error in article 16(3) of EU regulation No. 517/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on fluorinated greenhouse gases, which is retained direct EU legislation, as amended. As the Minister said, the correction will ensure that annual quotas that can be placed on the market in Great Britain each year by producers and importers are calculated as intended.

The fact that this is a technical change means that a long set of remarks from me would be surplus to requirements, but I wonder why the issue was not picked up sooner. Will the Minister set out why the technical correction was not built into the transfer from EU law to UK law at the time of our departure from the EU? It would be helpful for everyone here and all those watching and listening to know why we are here and whether the issue could have been avoided. I would be grateful if the Minister could outline any further technical changes that are required to existing and transferred legislation. Are her officials working on any now? Are they preparing to bring any back before the House? I appreciate that she may not have the answers today, but if she could write to me, I would be grateful.

I understand the very specific nature of the proposals, but I want to caution the Minister on their impact. The accompanying papers state:

“An Impact Assessment has not been prepared for this instrument because there is no impact as a result of its implementation.”

I understand that the instrument corrects a technical error, but I urge the Minister to return to her Department and make clear to her colleagues and officials that impact assessments should be the rule, not the exception. Does the Minister agree, and if so what will she do about it?

It was also made clear that consultation “was not deemed necessary”. Who made that call and on what basis? I do not want to understand the precise situation so much as the wider thinking and approach of the Government when it comes to consultation. Who decides when a consultation is necessary, who do they consult when making that call and what information do they factor in?

I will leave my remarks there. I acknowledge the technical nature of the proposals, but I hope the Minister can unpick some of the challenges.