European Union Bill

My Lords, I start by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, for the careful and conciliatory way in which he moved the amendment, now some time ago. I do not regard this as a wrecking amendment, but I do see it as an amendment that will confuse and complicate the principles behind this Bill, weaken their role and not help to reassure our sceptical citizens. In answer to the insistent question of the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, my reading of this amendment, which I am sure is that of the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, is that it is intended to be a permissive power and not an obligatory power for the Secretary of State, which is why it says ““may”” and not ““shall””. In its favour, the amendment rejects the passive approach proposed by Amendment 15; that is to say, the amendment in lieu requires the Government to take a positive decision to seek to suspend some of the provisions of the Bill. It is permissive in that respect. A Government taking such a decision would undoubtedly be mindful of the possible reaction of the British people to such a move. It would therefore be open to a greater degree of transparency in terms of the motivation of the Government of the day that the original sunset clause would not, to the same degree. As the noble Lord, Lord Lamont, noted, it allows for the suspension of the requirement for an Act of Parliament before any of the decisions in Clause 6 are taken, depending on the terms in the order. So it risks diluting the increased engagement for Parliament, which is an important part of this Bill. The level to which Parliament and the people would be involved in these important decisions would then be in the hands of Ministers, a principle that runs against the spirit of the Bill. A number of noble Lords suggested that the Bill was intended only to apply to future Governments. I remind noble Lords that in the next Session of this House, we will consider legislation under the terms of this Bill on Croatian accession and the European stability mechanism, and that the conditions of the Bill will apply to those. Let me offer some reassurance to the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, and his supporters on the context in which the Bill will operate once translated into law under future Governments and Parliaments. I remind your Lordships of the principles of parliamentary sovereignty—that no Parliament can bind its successors. If for any reason a future Parliament wished to suspend, disapply or repeal any of the provisions of this Bill, it could do so, unconstrained by the wishes of this Parliament. Most likely, it would decide to do so at a time when it was considering an Act of Parliament required under the terms of this Bill. At such a time, the particulars of that draft decision would be clear and so might the question of whether to disapply this Bill, or not. If I may say so, that is a Clause 18 statement, which is declaratory and in no sense changes the basis of how we operate. No future Government would venture to do so unless they had made real progress in regaining the trust of the British public in the processes of European co-operation that have been so seriously weakened in the past 15 to 20 years. I set out earlier the Government’s support for the previous Government’s new system of post-legislative scrutiny, which would allow a detailed, proper and timely examination of this legislation after five years. I repeat again the commitment of my friend, the Minister for Europe in the other place, that this Government are committed under the now accepted procedures of post-legislative scrutiny to the principle that a future Government must publish a full report on how this Bill has been used within five years of this legislation becoming law. I hope that that offers reassurances to the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, and his supporters. We believe that this is the most effective approach, rather than installing an instrument that would not re-engage the people of this country and would remove the transparency and certainty that this Government have adopted from the start as watchwords for the Bill. Having given those assurances, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.