Draft United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 (Exclusions from Market Access Principles: Single-use Plastics) Regulations 2022

Steven Bonnar Excerpts

Thursday 14th July 2022 General Committees

[Steven Bonnar (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (SNP)]

Mrs Murray, it is a pleasure to see you in the Chair today for the first time since I was elected. I welcome the Minister to his new role and thank him for laying out the Government’s position. As he alluded to, the Scottish Parliament has consented to this SI, at the suggestion of the Scottish Government.

The exclusion relates to certain categories of single-use plastics and will facilitate the effective operation of the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021. That means that a current Scottish law prohibiting single-use plastics will be able to operate and will not be undermined by the UK Internal Market Act, so the SNP Group in Westminster is content for this SI to pass.

However, the situation should never have reached this point. It is utterly wrong that laws passed in Holyrood, especially those designed to protect the environment and fight climate change, should be undermined by laws passed here in Westminster. The shadow Minister asked how the negotiations with the devolved Administrations went, and I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say on that, because while the UK Government allowed this specific exemption, they refused to agree to a wider exemption from the UK Internal Market Act for all Scottish environmental laws and bans. The Scottish Government have to come here to Westminster to ask the Government to provide exemptions on a case-by-case basis whenever environmental laws are passed by Scotland’s Parliament, meaning that the acts of Scotland’s lawmakers may be frustrated at any time, leaving them with no way to implement the will of the Scottish electorate.

The UK Internal Market Act was rejected by the devolved Governments, rejected by the electorate of Scotland and rejected by Scotland’s lawmakers and representatives. The need for this SI is a symptom of the Tory party’s muscular Unionism, which is intent on forcing Scotland to bow to the will of Westminster, often against its people’s wishes.