My Lords, without the new clause proposed by the noble and learned lord, Lord Hope of Craighead, the common framework system is redundant and, without a change of attitude by the Government, the union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is gravely threatened. I agree with the new clause as proposed by the noble and learned Lord and his co-signatories for the reasons that they have given, and I will support them accordingly if a Division is called. That I am disagreeing with my noble friends, the hard-working and overworked Minister on the Front Bench and Lord Naseby, is a matter of avoidable sadness.
As will readily be appreciated, common frameworks are a mechanism for the UK and devolved Governments to agree among themselves some regulatory consistency for policy areas where powers returning from the EU are within devolved competence. As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, told us, the principles for when a common framework is needed were agreed between the four Administrations in October 2017. It was then agreed that common frameworks would be established where they are necessary to enable the functioning of the UK internal market, while acknowledging policy divergence; to ensure compliance with international obligations; to ensure that the UK can negotiate, enter into and implement new trade agreements and international treaties; to enable the management of common resources; to administer and provide access to justice in cases with a cross-border element; and to safeguard the security of the United Kingdom. We expect common frameworks on a wide variety of topics, from the UK emissions trading system to food safety.
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This House has appointed the Common Frameworks Scrutiny Committee to scrutinise and consider matters relating to these frameworks. I am, as the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, has indicated, one of seven members of that Committee speaking today. It is a privilege to follow another, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas, whose remarks, as always, deserve close attention. Under the chairmanship of the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, we have already considered in a properly collegiate way a number of draft framework agreements, and we have more work to do.
It will perhaps be said by the Minister that this proposed new clause would disapply elements of the Bill, leaving people waiting in limbo for framework agreements to be concluded where consensus between the four Governments was not being achieved. It could create legal uncertainty about when an agreement has been finalised and hinder the Government’s ability to act where there was a need to do something quickly to avert a crisis. However, these are not convincing arguments. In which framework agreement area do the Government expect a prolonged—or even any—lack of consensus? If there is a damaging delay, the Government and Parliament can deal with the actuality, as opposed to the theoretical, with a one or two-clause Bill in a matter of hours. If the Government refuse to accept this proposed new clause, they will be doing something entirely contrary to government and Conservative Party policy, namely to encourage and even hasten the break-up of the United Kingdom. I
cannot believe that they intend this. If they do, the policy behind the Bill is even more eccentric than I had previously thought. I identified some serious concerns at Second Reading and in Committee, and do not wish to add to them.
To prevent this proposed new clause becoming part of the Bill will undermine the purposes set out in the 2017 communiqué and have the adverse consequences that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas, cited but, worse, it will endanger the union. I assume that the Bill is intended more as a political instrument than a constitutional one. I know that the development of our constitution over centuries has been at times unplanned, pragmatic and even haphazard, but we have tended to avoid deliberately destructive or destabilising measures.
The devolution settlement is by no means perfect but, as a Conservative and unionist, in company with my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern and my noble friend Lord Bourne, and many other noble Lords who have spoken today, I want to resolve the conundrum without destroying the integrity and cohesion of the United Kingdom. The natural and probable consequence of enacting this statute in its unamended form only three years after the quadrilateral agreement underpinning the common frameworks process will pull us in a damaging direction, through unwanted domination, absence of collaboration, lack of respect for the limited powers of the devolved Administrations, and a failure to recognise the complex and dynamic nature of this area of public policy. It will provoke an unequal and opposite reaction and hasten the break-up of the union.