My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 174 in this group. I wish to speak to that and other amendments that I support.
Possibly the greatest asset that we gained from our decades of EU membership was the development of and assistance on the highest standards. In consumer and environmental protection, employment practices, public health standards, animal health and in the development of social policies, we have all benefited enormously and our quality of life has been greatly enhanced. Often, we as a nation were at the forefront of the development of those EU policies. On occasion, in our own legislation, we chose to adopt even higher standards, as my noble friend Lord Teverson said earlier. Those were the days when we really were world-beating.
It is therefore very disappointing that the Bill contains nothing to guarantee high standards; there is no process set out to agree even minimum standards. The amendments in this group seek to rectify this, hence it is a legitimate aim to seek higher standards or to maintain existing standards.
Across the world, the experience of capitalism reveals that unfettered markets—capitalism in the raw—without a sound framework of standards often drive down standards to the lowest common denominator. For example, in the USA, hardly a country struggling for development, market access provisions unaccompanied by agreed minimum standards have led to deregulation as a way to attract business. It is well known as a ploy.
8.45 pm
One of the notable contributions of 20 years of devolution has been an enthusiasm for new approaches—experimentation, if you like—to create higher standards. Other noble Lords have referred to this. In animal health, there was the Welsh ban on electric shock collars for dogs. On environmental standards, again in Wales, charges were introduced for single-use carrier bags. In public health, minimum unit pricing for alcohol was introduced, first in Scotland and then in Wales. Next year the Welsh Government plan to introduce further restrictions on single-use plastics. Wales is the perfect size for experiments of this type, and existing devolved powers have allowed for them. How does the Minister see the interaction between the principle of unfettered access into Great Britain for goods from Northern Ireland and EU regulations which increasingly diverge from those of the rest of the UK?
Common frameworks are designed to respect and maintain standards, and to accommodate new ones. Those that the Common Frameworks Scrutiny Committee, of which I am a member, have seen so far in draft form, illustrate that this is a viable approach, but neither standards nor common frameworks are mentioned in the Bill. Instead, there is every incentive for standards to atrophy, because the Bill recognises the status quo but penalises the devolved Administrations that seek to introduce new measures by reducing their power and freedom of movement.
The Bill freezes the existing regulatory differences at the point when this Bill comes into force. It undermines the incentive for regulatory change, improvement or experimentation. The law on the sale of air guns, for instance, is very much tighter in Northern Ireland and Scotland than in Wales and England. To buy an air gun in Scotland, you must be present in person. Would that be regarded as indirectly discriminatory against, for example, suppliers from the rest of the UK? Clearly it cannot be regarded as such at the moment because it is an existing provision. If, however, the Scottish Government introduced something like that in the future, would it be regarded as indirectly discriminatory in the terms of this Bill?
Exactly how do the Government intend to retain our reputation as a country with high standards? I remind the Minister that once we lose our reputation as a reliable partner with which to do business, we then lose our trading partners. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, that high standards are not barriers to trade. They unlock trade. We are not the world’s shady
market trader. We are an innovative trading nation known for quality and reliability. To keep that reputation through the revolution that we have wished upon ourselves, we must maintain the market mechanisms that created that reputation. We live in a rapidly changing regulatory environment, and this Bill undermines the incentive for us to be ahead of the curve.