Draft Introduction and the Import of Cultural Goods (Revocation) Regulations 2021

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Tuesday 14th September 2021 General Committees

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hosie. I would have been tempted to vote against the regulations, but in the circumstances, I will settle for a short moan.

I agree with the Minister and the shadow spokesperson that the regulations relate to hugely important issues, first because they relate to the protection of valuable and culturally significant items and secondly, because they help to stymie the funding of terrorism and the activities of organised crime. However, the various criticisms of the draft instrument raised when it was debated in June in House of Lords are yet to be addressed. In that debate the process was described as rushed and the word used was “cavalier”, and I tend to agree with that criticism. In fact, we are only getting to debate the SI today because the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments expressed concern about the use of the negative procedure. I think it is important that we have the opportunity to debate the instrument today.

Ministers are using a power to make technical fixes to retained EU law, but it has been acknowledged that it would have been open to them to make a small tweak to the retained EU regulations rather than repeal them entirely. What is suggested today is way beyond a technical fix—in some respects, it is a full-blown change in policy. Arguably, that change should not be made using such powers, and, indeed, made only after a thorough consultation and scrutiny of alternative proposals. Perhaps that should be conducted by the Law Commission, as the shadow Minister suggested.

I am happy to accept that there may be problems with the way in which the EU regulations operate, but they should be studied and detailed proposals for reform should be suggested, rather than the SI before us. Proper consultation and policy scrutiny would have avoided the various questions and issues raised in the other place. In fact, it is not even clear exactly how our rules and processes will differ after this SI comes into force, because our domestic laws will revert to depending upon a right hodgepodge of international conventions and different Acts of Parliament. The Minister said that the SI will provide clarity and certainty but actually complexity and confusion will come back into force.

As I understand it, the rules are not always brilliantly enforced in the UK and they require little by way of active checks. That brooks no criticism of those involved in the difficult work of enforcement, but it is a criticism of the hodgepodge of rules with which they have to contend.

Their lordships also highlighted that there will be different rules in different parts of the United Kingdom. Part of that difference is a legitimate function of devolution, but very significantly, part of that is a function of the Northern Ireland protocol, which has yet to be mentioned. It would be helpful to know how different will the respective regimes be in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Is there not a danger that those differences risk providing a back door to certain illegal trade?

Regardless of that lack of clarity, there is a strong suggestion that we will revert to a slightly weaker system. An example provided by Blue Shield UK was cited in the House of Lords debate. It was argued that without the retention of the EU regulation, we will revert to a position where it would not be illegal to import into the UK an Egyptian cultural object on grounds that it was illegally exported from that country, despite Egypt having national legislation to that effect. Under the domestic regime to which we are reverting, one would have to show that that object was stolen for any problem to arise with its importation.

There seems to be a suggestion that we are reverting to rules that are different and weaker, and therefore at risk of damaging our reputation. My simple point is that before we go repealing EU regulations there should be proper consultation on what should replace them, and a consolidation of all domestic and international rules that apply here. In that way we can be clear about what exactly will be different about the new system, and we can scrutinise it properly.

I have had my moan and in the circumstances I will not press the matter to a vote, but I would be interested to hear what the Minister has to say in response to some of those questions and criticisms.