Member

The noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, talked a lot about paragraph 7 in the Explanatory Memorandum, and everything she said about it is completely correct. Paragraph 9 of the impact assessment says that the Government believe that there will be no significant impact on individuals or businesses from these new regulations. That may or may not be right, and I have listened with respect to the reasons why the noble Lord, Lord Dodds, and the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, suggest that it may not be. However, previous regret amendments have been accompanied by explanatory memoranda. They have also claimed that there would be a significant effect, and that the Government’s assessment is that there would be no significant impact. I recall no significant impact, and the proof of this pudding will be in the eating, but we have been here before. If there is a significant impact, I have yet to hear of it. I have heard what businesses in Northern Ireland are saying. What has always surprised me is the degree to which they supported even the original protocol, let alone the changes in the Windsor Framework.