The Bill certainly has not improved with age; on the contrary, all of its flaws have become more exposed as the chorus of criticism on it has become louder and louder. We have heard Ministers blame misrepresentation a lot this afternoon. I think that they need to realise that they have brought this mess entirely on themselves. I wonder whether now, on reflection, they regret embarking on a process that has made opponents of so many people they did not need to anger. This morning, I listened to the chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, who was absolutely scathing about the Bill. The Government have brought that upon themselves. Whatever Ministers think it is that they are doing, this is very bad politics—not that it is for me to advise them.
The fundamental problem, as we have heard, is that the Government still do not seem to know what it is that they want to do. Here we are, six-and-a-half years after the referendum, and they cannot tell us precisely what they want to scrap, what they want to amend and what they want to save. They cannot tell us. For my sins, I read the Hansard of the Committee, and found that, despite being asked that question many times, the Minister could not or would not provide an answer. As yet, I describe this as a process without a purpose. In the meantime, as we have also heard, Ministers have created huge uncertainty for business.
It is extraordinary, and that is why I am supporting the amendments that have been tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Justin Madders). They seek to give substance to what the Government claim, which is that they have no intention of sweeping away lots of environmental and consumer protection and workers’ rights laws; they just refuse to be specific about the ones they are going to keep. The amendments would make it clear beyond doubt which pieces of EU retained law will not be affected by sunsetting.
I am also supporting the cross-party amendment—amendment 36—tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy) because, whatever differences of view there may be in the House about other aspects of the Bill, surely nobody would argue that it is acceptable to repeal legislation by accident. Nobody can argue for that—that a piece of retained EU law should suddenly disappear from the statute book in just over 11 months because no one noticed its existence.
The Minister argued in Committee:
“Allowing outdated retained EU laws to languish on our statute book where they do not work in the best interests of the UK”—
debate—
“is irresponsible.”––[Official Report, Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Public Bill Committee, 22 November 2022; c. 121.]
I would argue that it is irresponsible to propose this legislation, which could cause laws to disappear simply by neglect, given that Ministers cannot even produce a list of the so-called outdated laws—I simply do not understand this idea that all these bits of legislation are dragging the nation down—let alone a full and complete list of all the pieces of retained EU law that come within scope of this Bill. Because of that, the amendment my hon. Friend will be moving is necessary.
3.30 pm
The Government have admitted that they do not have such a list. They have been asked repeatedly and the best answer they could come up with was that the
“dashboard presents an authoritative, not comprehensive, catalogue”
of retained EU law. It might have been better to say, “We don’t yet know what it is we’re talking about.” I think that is a fair summary of the Bill and that is why the amendment is needed. It will provide a fall-back and a fail-safe and it gives the House control—there has been much debate about that today—about what stays and what goes. I hope Members will support it.
On the sunset date, everybody knows that it is completely unrealistic—everybody knows. In the Second Reading debate, a former holder of the job I had the privilege to do, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs—the right hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers)—while supporting the Bill, said that there was a bit of a problem with the deadline here, because of what the Government were asking civil servants and Ministers to do. Nobody believes it is going to happen, which is why I argued last time that lots of this stuff will just be saved, using the powers that are within the Bill. We should help the Government by voting for amendment 18 to move the sunset date from this December to 2026.
Above all, this is a terrible diversion of resources and effort. There are so many things in this country at the moment that are not working. I am not going to go through the list, but we all know that because it is the experience of our constituents. Why do the Government not focus on those things, rather than on pieces of legislation that are working—because they protect our environmental standards, consumer rights and working conditions? The fact that they originated, in many respects, from the European Union really does not matter one way or another. They are laws that we approve of, we like and we want to keep and that is why so many people are so unhappy about this Bill: it threatens and it does not look as though the Government know what they are doing.