My Lords, this has been a very good and wide-ranging debate—one of the best we have had so far on the Bill. We have heard several notable speeches and some new voices. I look forward to reading their speeches in Hansard and learning from them. The main focus has been the necessary tension between the wish to have unfettered frictionless trade in our internal market and the wish to preserve our existing high standards. This was well expressed by my noble friend Lady Hayman.
My amendments cover this ground. Amendment 35, which I am delighted is also signed by the noble Lord, Lord Anderson of Ipswich, and the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, tries to expand the legitimate aims to include some of the standards to which I have already referred. Amendment 51 expands that and provides for a slightly wider context within which legislative aims are discussed and slightly expanded. It also comes back to the basics: standards of activity within which trading takes place and where we have rightly set high standards that are enjoyed by our consumers.
Amendment 57 deals with conditions excluded by market principles and amends the schedule only as consequential to earlier amendments, I think. Amendment 58 deals with an issue raised by the noble Lord, Lord Anderson of Ipswich, in his very good speech in which he quoted Peter Oliver, who pointed out that some of the restraints that are allowed within the Bill are very limited indeed. Our amendment tries to expand that to make sure that it is not restricted just to basic considerations.
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The noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, made the point that all these amendments—not that the Government will accept them all—would erect barriers. However, as the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, said, trade does not take place in a moral or ethical vacuum. The noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, complained that these amendments would reduce choice for consumers and increase costs, but others have pointed out, and I agree with them, that that will be worth it if these different constraints deliver a better world. I put it to the Government that these amendments are really just trying to maintain the status quo, hard fought for over a long period, in which we have arrived at a position in which we broadly balance the two issues I raised at the start of my speech.
I put it again to the Government that if there is a concern about increasing uncertainty as a result of these amendments, they should start by rethinking the Bill because, as others have said, it starts with the common frameworks and it can be added to by having effective arrangements around which the gaps in the common frameworks can be covered and a system put in place to resolve any difficulties that arise. That would give us the sort of certainty that will lead to the frictionless trade that they aspire to; it will not be a matter to do with these amendments.