My Lords, Amendment 214 is about retaining our standards after we leave the EU. These are the standards of the goods and services we consume, the standards that maintain protections for individual and consumer rights, the environment, employment and a whole host of things. These standards underpin what ordinary citizens have come to regard as normal in their everyday life. Quite simply, many of the standards that we have come to accept as normal are set, and enforced, by EU institutions. When the UK leaves the EU, we will lose the benefits of these EU governance institutions, and it is not clear that they will be replaced. The amendment would create a duty to ensure that any governance or regulatory function relating to this that is currently exercised by an EU institution would be transposed into UK law.
It may be impossible to replicate the highly expert and specialised institutions which the EU has built over many years, but if a governance function is to be abolished, or just not replaced, there should be a proper debate and the Government should go about it in the proper way, through the parliamentary process. The amendment would ensure that these standards can be enforced, with clear options for redress should disputes arise and with clear dispute resolution procedures if the European Court of Justice is not involved.
In addition, these institutions would have to be independent. The European Environment Agency can threaten to take a British Government to court for not maintaining air quality standards. This is why the Government are busily making proposals to satisfy those standards. If the enforcement agency was just another branch of government, that would undoubtedly compromise the enforcement.
Why is it important to do this now? Surely we can leave it for later. No, we cannot. These institutions ensure that day-to-day decisions made by national and local government, and in public agencies, do not undermine these important standards and protections. That is why the principle has to be in place from day one. It also has to be in place then because, as the debate on amendments to Clause 6 made clear, where there is regulatory alignment on standards it is unclear how courts will interpret EU decisions in the event of disputes.
This amendment would ensure that, even with its lack of clarity on enforcement, our standards must not drop. Indeed, in the debate on Amendment 144, several noble Lords were concerned about the lack of clarity and certainty in the mutual recognition of standards in food, transport, professional qualifications and communications. In his response, the Minister spoke of the Government being,
“committed to maintaining high standards”,
but in a manner,
“still to be determined.—[Official Report, 14/3/18; col.1602.]
Presumably, this is because negotiations are taking place. I suppose we all have to live with that, but this amendment would help us to do so. It would deal with
our concerns so that, whatever the outcome of these negotiations, the standards that are so important in our way of life will not be sacrificed. The article by the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, in the Times also touches on this. For instance, we all need to be assured that we will not alter or lower the standards of the general protection rules on data, because these govern the transfer and exchange of data. Doing so would have an absolutely devastating effect on data moving freely, impacting on the lives of millions of people.
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In another place, a similar amendment was proposed by the honourable Member for Swansea West, Mr Geraint Davies. It was not voted on, and in his response the Minister there spoke of the Government’s commitment to high standards and said that some were already protected through our own domestic provisions. This, of course, is true and is very welcome, but it is the many others that concern me. I am speaking of the EU standards, and as we leave the EU it all depends on how the EU law that sets and enforces standards in this country at present remains part of our law.
This has also been a topic of much debate between noble and learned Lords earlier in Committee. What seems to be certain from this, however, is that it leaves our standards vulnerable to the discretion of Ministers with wide powers of delegation. In an earlier amendment, I pointed out that Ministers have significant licence when making international trade and investment agreements. Indeed, they can undermine domestic standards and protections even if the domestic law says otherwise. This creates a sort of back door for important standards and protections to be undermined without any kind of accountability.
This Bill, with this amendment, is the place to deal with this uncertainty. Yes, there is a lot of uncertainty over withdrawal. This amendment would help a lot towards dealing with this uncertainty by protecting much of what we have come to accept as part of our everyday life. That is why it has to be in the Bill. Our standards will be at risk unless it is. I beg to move.