Contributions
485 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Impact on UK Internal MarketI thank my noble friend for his question, which is a good one. The safeguards in Article 16 are what they say they are: safeguards. They are not an on/off switch but are…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: EU NegotiationsMy Lords, we have always said that there will need to be a treaty arrangement between this country and the European Union to deal with the special features of Northern Ireland and…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: EU NegotiationsMy Lords, our interest, and the way that I am pursuing these negotiations, is the interest of everyone in Northern Ireland, and of the prosperity and stability of everyone in…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Impact on UK Internal MarketMy Lords, I have indeed looked at the polling conducted by Queen’s University, where I had a good meeting yesterday, by the way. There is a lot of other polling around on this…18 Nov 2021HANSARDRetained EU LawMy Lords, actually, I was not CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association at the time; I was an official, working on the very review the noble Lord refers to. The policy of the…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Court of Justice of the European UnionMy Lords, the answer is “no”. We are trying to reach an agreement. That has always been our position; it was our position in July and it is now. I suggest that our friends in the…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: EU NegotiationsMy Lords, we will, of course, set out our justification for using Article 16 and the legal basis and so on, if we get to that point. As regards to the legal opinion quoted by the…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Court of Justice of the European UnionMy Lords, the Government have proposed changes to the governance arrangements in the protocol involving the Court of Justice of the European Union. The court’s jurisdiction in…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: EU NegotiationsMy Lords, the noble Lord is obviously much more deeply expert in the Belfast/Good Friday agreement than I am, given his background. He is, of course, absolutely right in what he…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Court of Justice of the European UnionMy Lords, my noble friend asks a very good question. I assure her that there is no role for the court of justice in the trade and co-operation agreement. There are provisions in…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Impact on UK Internal MarketMy Lords, the processes that goods undergo when they enter Northern Ireland are those that, in our view, are required by the protocol, which, of course, has direct effect in UK…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Impact on UK Internal MarketMy Lords, it is somewhere between 0% and 100%, to be honest. It does not help to put specific numbers on these sorts of things. The noble Baroness makes a good point, though,…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: EU NegotiationsMy Lords, the noble Baroness is of course correct that I said on Wednesday that a Statement would be made in the other place in due course and that it was made in the way that she…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Court of Justice of the European UnionMy Lords, I cannot add very much to what I said earlier, which is that the EU defines the court of justice as the final arbiter of what EU law means. We do not challenge that and…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: EU NegotiationsMy noble friend is right that the current situation in Northern Ireland, with various grace periods and other easements in the implementation of the protocol, is nevertheless…18 Nov 2021HANSARDProtocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Court of Justice of the European UnionMy Lords, I cannot believe that I have really baffled the noble Lord, with his deep knowledge of EU affairs that is much greater than mine. The Government will set out the basis…18 Nov 2021HANSARDRetained EU LawMy Lords, the best way I can answer the question is to refer back to what I said on 16 September, when I referred to the democratic deficit issue of such law, and note that “we…18 Nov 2021HANSARDIreland/Northern Ireland: Solid FuelsMy Lords, the noble Baroness makes a very good point. The UK and the Republic of Ireland are obviously different countries divided by an international border, and most areas of…18 Nov 2021HANSARDIreland/Northern Ireland: Solid FuelsMy Lords, we are aware of the Irish Government’s plans to introduce new standards for domestic solid fuels under their forthcoming clean air strategy. Of course, the…18 Nov 2021HANSARDIreland/Northern Ireland: Solid FuelsThe noble Lord makes a very fair point about the objectives of this legislation. That is why we need to establish the detail of what the Irish Government intend to do and how they…18 Nov 2021