I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie, and the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, for their consideration of this statutory instrument and their valuable contributions and questions—I shall endeavour to deal with as many of them as possible.
I have set out today the importance of this SI and the importance of having full sovereignty over our regulatory regime for goods at the end of the transition period. I emphasise that this SI is not a precondition for divergence; nor does it introduce any divergence from our current rules. By supporting the SI, we will ensure that we are not faced with legal challenges that seek to keep us in line with EU regulations.
To recap: treaty rights provisions prohibit quantitative restrictions or equivalent measures on imports and exports. Therefore, future divergence from EU regulatory requirements could result in a challenge from a business or importer if it led to a barrier being created to placing their goods on the market in Great Britain. This SI will ensure that we have the freedom to regulate goods in Great Britain as we see fit, along with considering the impact on businesses and consumers, while ensuring that the UK product safety system remains among the strongest in the world.
As advised, these regulations will not result in any changes for businesses. However, they will give businesses greater certainty that, if UK rules change, they will not be rolled back after legal challenges based on treaty articles that no longer make sense once we have left the EU.
The noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie, raised the important subject of working with the devolved Administrations. I repeat what I said in my introduction: my officials have had a number of informal meetings with officials from the Governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, all individually, on this SI. Officials have also hosted regular meetings with officials from the devolved Administrations to discuss progress in negotiations and the regulatory requirements for goods at the end of the transition period. I say again that consent to this regulation was given by all the devolved Administrations.
The noble Baroness also asked about goods moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain. We are laying this legislation to ensure that we do not face challenges from manufacturers or importers if in Great Britain we decide to change our regulation of goods in a way that creates barriers to trade with the EU. This does not mean that there will be barriers for goods flowing from Northern Ireland into Great Britain. We have laid legislation to prevent such barriers, including the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill and the unfettered access legislation. This SI will not undo any of those protections. I shall write to both noble Lords on the definition of Northern Ireland qualifying goods.
The noble Lord, Lord Bassam, asked about the protection of rights. The vast majority of these changes will take place regardless of the agreement that we have reached with the European Union on our future trading relationship so that businesses can be confident that their plans and preparations to date have not been wasted.
We also recognise the impact that the pandemic will have had on industry’s ability to prepare. For that reason, we are taking a pragmatic and flexible approach to using some of our retained powers as a sovereign nation to allow businesses time to adjust.
The noble Lord also asked about legislative time. More than 150 SIs required by the end of the transition period have already been laid. Good progress is being made and we remain confident that all required SIs will be in force by the end of the transition period.
The noble Lord and the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie, also asked about the important subject of business readiness. We are listening to businesses and recognise that they have faced many challenges, particularly from Covid-19. For goods with the new UKCA marking, we are permitting the use of the CE marking for goods in scope of the SI until 1 January 2022 as long as Great Britain and EU technical requirements remain the same. There are easements allowing the UKCA marking to be affixed to a label on a product or on a document accompanying the product until 31 December 2022, and we are allowing new importers of products from the EEA to set out their details on a document accompanying their products until 31 December 2022. Those are all ways in which we are helping to ease the burden on business.
Since the summer, the Government have also been providing support through an ambitious series of business readiness events. My department has published a range of guidance. However, I stress once again that this SI does not introduce any changes for businesses.
The UK will have its own regulatory regime after the end of the transition period and the EU will not treat UK goods as it would goods from a member state. Therefore, the provisions to which this SI relates are no longer appropriate to retain and could impede our ability to diverge from EU goods regulation in future. I commend the regulations to the Committee.