Draft Waste and Environmental Protection (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Sandy Martin Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd October 2019 General Committees

[Sandy Martin (Ipswich) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I will not try to pretend that the eyes of the world are on us here in this room; I am sure that some or all of the hon. Members here would have preferred to be in the Chamber. [Hon. Members: “No!”] However, I am thrilled and slightly surprised to see that the hon. Member for Lichfield is perfectly capable of being in two places at the same time. I have a great deal of respect for that.

I am delighted to speak on the Waste and Environmental Protection (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. Let us be very careful that we do not muddle today’s SI with the Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 or the Environmental Protection (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, because, of course, those are the amendments that we made in those regulations, and these are the amendments that we are making to the amendments that we made, which we are amending here today. Indeed, let us also be very careful in future not to muddle the Waste and Environmental Protection (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 with the waste and environmental protection (amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU exit) Regulations 2020, which we could very well be dealing with in three or four months’ time.

I am not just trying to be funny or to waste hon. Members’ time. The fact is that we are here amending amendments that were previously made in these three previous amending SIs, and one piece of Northern Ireland primary legislation that got away and failed to be amended at the time when the other amendments were being made. I say here and now that I am in no way casting any aspersions whatever on the DEFRA staff and others who have had to make such strenuous efforts over the past year to carry out a near-impossible job; but, however hard we try, we are not going to be able to get all the regulations right for leaving the European Union.

Our 46 years of regulatory alignment, 46 years of developing the most comprehensive and effective protections in the world for food safety, animal welfare, environmental protection and waste management, and 46 years of seamless, safe and trouble-free trade cannot be undone quickly or without extreme difficulty. I hope that hon. Members facing these detailed and technical SIs, which are attempting—sometimes unsuccessfully—to untangle the threads of the legislative fabric that we have woven alongside our European partners, will consider quietly and honestly whether they really think that what we are doing is in the best interests of the people of this country.

With the greatest respect to the Minister, who has attempted to explain away the change to the wording on taking into account the “best available techniques”, and her careful answer to the hon. Member for Lichfield, I am afraid I still do not understand why it is necessary to remove the words from the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. I am sure that the Minister would not want any best available techniques not to be taken into account. It would have been very helpful if the explanation had been given in writing, in the explanatory memorandum. I will be interested to see that explanation in writing in the future. I can quite understand why the Minister believes that the words are not necessary; what I cannot understand is why she believes it is necessary to remove the words.

The other matter that I have still not understood is why we need to move towards the aim of becoming something rather than aiming to become it, or indeed moving towards it. Perhaps the Minister will explain the significance of those changes, and also explain why we will not go the whole hog and consider the possibility of seeking to move towards the aim of becoming something. Most people would want to know whether we were actually going to achieve our aims and not have all this additional hedging added in.

I hope we do not have to hold many more of these amendment SI Committees. On that point, I confidently expect all hon. Members to agree with me, but I fear we have much of this to come.