My Lords, these regulations have a straightforward aim: to reflect in domestic law the consent mechanism set out in Article 18 of the Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol and the UK Government’s unilateral declaration of 17 October 2019. The protocol itself is an annexe to the withdrawal agreement and was developed with the intent of protecting the Belfast/Good Friday agreement. That intent was at the heart of our negotiations with the EU last year and is reflected here in the consent mechanism. It is something we will always uphold.
These regulations provide for the locally elected politicians of Northern Ireland to decide whether Northern Ireland remains aligned with certain aspects of EU law set out in Articles 5 to 10 of the protocol. These articles cover customs, the UK internal market, technical regulations of goods, VAT and excise, the single electricity market and state aid. The unilateral declaration published by the Government concerning the operation of the consent mechanism provides further detail on the obligation described within the protocol. These regulations implement that consent process by providing for a vote in the Assembly as to whether to continue this alignment. These commitments have been set out and committed to in international law, and now it is for us to bring them into domestic law with this instrument.
It will perhaps help to begin with the fundamentals. The Belfast/Good Friday agreement was ratified by referenda in both Northern Ireland and Ireland and is built on the principle of consent. In the protocol, the necessity of consent is recognised in the provision for Northern Ireland’s alignment with certain aspects of EU law to be disapplied if Northern Ireland’s political representatives decide that it is no longer what is wanted. Be in no doubt that reflecting this principle of democratic consent in the protocol was intrinsic to its acceptance by the Government. As noble Lords will know, the protocol was designed as a practical solution to avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland while ensuring that the UK, including Northern Ireland, could leave the EU as a whole. The protocol necessarily included, therefore, a number of special provisions which apply only in Northern Ireland for as long as the protocol is in force. That is why it is for the elected representatives in Northern Ireland to decide what happens to the protocol alignment provisions in a consent vote that can take place every four years, with the first vote taking place in 2024. Only elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly and its Members’ votes will decide the outcome.
I will now turn to the detail of the process. These regulations implement both a default consent process and an alternative consent process. The default process will apply if a First Minister and Deputy First Minister are in office on the day the Secretary of State issues the notification to begin the process. In 2024 that will be on 31 October. Under that default process, the First Minister and Deputy First Minister have one month during which they can, acting jointly, table a consent resolution. This is our central scenario: that the Executive will be functioning normally in 2024 and the First Minister and Deputy First Minister will jointly table the Motion, which will be debated in the normal way in the Assembly. Everything else that follows in these highly technical regulations is designed to cater for increasingly unlikely scenarios, but they are reflected here in the regulations to ensure that a consent decision can always be reached.
In that vein, if, before 1 December, the First Minister and Deputy First Minister have not tabled a Motion for a consent resolution, any Member of the Assembly can table a consent Motion before 7 December. It would then be debated in the normal way, although if the Motion has not been decided by 17 December, the debate will be scheduled automatically and the Speaker will move the Motion.
The process I have just described will operate if the political institutions in Northern Ireland are functioning as expected. That is our central scenario, as I said earlier, and the path we expect to go down. But we must be prepared for all scenarios. The alternative process will therefore apply if, on 31 October 2024, or any future such point, a First Minister and Deputy First Minister are not in office. We should remember that the protocol was drafted at such a time—a deeply challenging time for Northern Ireland. While we all welcome the restoration and subsequent stability that the Executive have achieved, it is right that we have this in reserve.
The alternative process enables any MLA to bring forward the consent Motion in the absence of a First Minister and Deputy First Minister at any time from
1 November until 7 December. If no Motion has been tabled or has not been decided on by 7 December, the Speaker must summon the Assembly to sit and consider the Motion. The alternative process also puts in place a procedure to enable the consent vote to happen under the alternative process even if the Assembly is unable to elect a Speaker when required to do so. In this case, the Assembly would move to elect by simple majority an interim Speaker, whose only role would be to preside over the consent debate and transmit the result to the Secretary of State. The interim Speaker would have no wider role beyond this narrow task. This provision ensures that MLAs will always be able to take a decision on a consent Motion, discharging the obligation in international law to facilitate this process.
If these draft regulations are approved, the first consent process would, as I have set out, take place in 2024. If consent is given at that point, the process will then be repeated every four or eight years. So, if consent is given with a simple majority, that is four years. If consent is given with cross-community support, it will be eight years. Cross-community support means the support of a majority of the Members voting, a majority of the designated nationalists voting and a majority of the designated unionists voting, as set out in the Northern Ireland Act 1998. This illustrates that the mechanism itself is designed to encourage cross-community support, giving the Assembly the chance to provide eight years of certainty to Northern Ireland’s businesses through cross-community agreement.
There are arguments that this approach is not compatible with the Belfast agreement. That could not be further from the truth: our approach is entirely compatible with the agreement; let me explain why. The principle of cross-community consent as set out in the Belfast agreement applies to matters for which the Northern Ireland Assembly is responsible. The consent mechanism, as contained in the Northern Ireland protocol, relates to the UK’s continued relationship with the EU. This is an excepted matter in Northern Ireland’s devolution settlement. This means that the matter at hand falls outside the responsibility of the Assembly and outside the principle of requiring cross-community consent in order for it to pass.
I can assure noble Lords that the Government remain fully committed to implementing the withdrawal agreement and the protocol, which was specifically designed to protect the 22 year-old Belfast/Good Friday agreement and the huge gains of the peace process. That is why the alignment provisions in the protocol depend for their legitimacy on consent. This ensures that democratically elected local politicians will decide the future of the protocol in Northern Ireland. By making these regulations, we will ensure that this can be delivered for the people of Northern Ireland by the institution established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998. I beg to move.
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