European Communities (Definition of Treaties) (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Order 2009

I start by thanking everyone who has contributed to this debate which has been extremely well informed, if somewhat challenging from a Minister’s point of view. Specification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as a Community treaty under the European Communities Act 1972 may be a somewhat technical issue but nevertheless is a crucial step towards ratification of the convention, and one which must be in place before we can ratify. The convention itself is a very significant landmark for disabled people and their organisations, and for the Government and society as a whole. The noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, expressed that most forcefully. I am delighted that she is able to join us given that she had double duty in another place. Several points about the Government’s proposals for ratification have been raised in the debate. I shall attempt to deal with as many as I can. As I said in my opening remarks, we need a formal government response to the JCHR report. As I indicated, we hope to move that forward fairly swiftly. I cannot guarantee what it will say or whether it will change anything that I am referring to now. The parliamentary scrutiny of treaties was raised by the noble Lords, Lord Lester, Lord Hannay, Lord Maclennan and Lord Skelmersdale, and by the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas. The point was made that the fact that we have a specification process in this case gives us a rare opportunity to debate treaties. Noble Lords called, not unreasonably, for Parliament to be able to scrutinise proposals to ratify treaties, and for proposals to enhance scrutiny to be brought forward. The Government intend to introduce the Constitutional Renewal Bill covering the ratification of treaties before the Summer Recess. I hope that news is welcome to those who have concerns about this. I wish to pick up on one or two other points about ratification. The noble Lord, Lord Hannay, sought an assurance that we do not have to wait for the European Community to go through its ratification process before we can complete ours. I am advised that the answer to that is clearly no and that we will move ahead and ratify as soon as we can. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, asked whether our reservations and declarations have to be attached to the European Community’s ratification, and the answer to that is no as well. Our reservations and declarations reflect domestic UK needs. However, the European Community proposes to enter a complementary reservation to ours to cover the position of service in the Armed Forces.