Lord Dodds of Duncairn (DUP)

My Lords, I too am grateful to the Minister for outlining in detail the impact and effect of the statutory instrument before us today and for clearly setting out the reasons behind it as well. I am also extremely grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, for her regret amendment, which ensures that there is time in this House for your Lordships to consider this latest piece of legislation, which has been consulted upon in Europe, drafted in Europe, devised in Europe and planned in Europe for the benefit of the European Union states, and which has been implemented in part of the United Kingdom without any input into any of that process by any Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, any Member of Parliament or any Member of your Lordships’ House. It is quite a staggering situation in modern Britain, in a modern G7 country, for part of its own country to be subjected to this kind of colonial legislative process. It is quite remarkable when you think about it. This latest regulation deals with a very important area, which, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, outlined, covers a wide range of equipment in Northern Ireland and will have a lot of impacts, particularly on small and medium-sized businesses. This is the latest in a long line of statutory instruments affecting a very wide range of subjects, all listed in Annex 2 of the Northern Ireland protocol. Last week, I raised the issue of dental amalgam, because that is now under EU law and jurisdiction. Next week, we will be debating in Grant Committee the issue of cars coming into Northern Ireland, whereby now the biggest-selling car in Northern Ireland cannot be shipped from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, even though we sell, from Britain into the Irish Republic, only a handful of cars every year. But this is why consumers and motorists in Northern Ireland are going to have to pay more and come to Britain to buy their cars. This is the modern United Kingdom. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, reminded your Lordships, we have a problem with veterinary medicines, which is going to come in on 1 January 2026. We have an issue to do with the carbon border adjustment mechanism, which again is going to come in on 1 January 2026 in Northern Ireland. We have an issue to do with the Sentencing Bill, which your Lordships considered the other day at Second Reading, in which plans to deport people who come here may not be applicable, with part of the United Kingdom providing a back door and a loophole for all sorts of nefarious activity. We have court challenges in Northern Ireland to immigration policy and to legacy problems, all based on the fact that they do not comply with and conform to European law through the Windsor Framework. Not only are they ruled to be contrary, they actually strike down legislation passed by this House—in part of the United Kingdom. It is a sad state of affairs, a lamentable state of affairs, a state of affairs that cannot endure in the long run. Sooner or later, even those who today are prepared to accept anything the European Union passes because it is the European Union, even those who care about democracy but these matters do not matter as much to them, even nationalists in the Northern Ireland Assembly, those who are not unionists, will say: “Hold on a moment, surely we should be making and devising and formulating the laws for the people we represent”. They may not wish to be part of the United Kingdom, but they do not want to have laws imposed upon them by a group of countries which make these laws in their own interests. They do not consult with anyone in Northern Ireland—nationalist, unionist or anyone. So I make a plea on behalf of everybody in Northern Ireland. Citizens and elected representatives of all shades should be saying: “Hold on a minute, we would like to actually make these laws for ourselves”. But here we are, once again, looking at a piece of legislation which applies European law because it is in Annex 2 of the protocol. I am not going to go through all the issues that the previous speakers have raised. The point about consultation is an extremely important one. The Explanatory Memorandum implies, more or less, that because there is no room for amendment, the legislation must be imposed in Northern Ireland because the EU has decided this and passed this. There is no room for getting rid of it. Therefore, what is the point of consultation? That is, in essence, what the consultation part of the Explanatory Memorandum says on the regulatory divergence point. As in so many cases, we are now told that while the rest of the United Kingdom may come into line with EU regulations and therefore mitigate the frictions between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, often that is vague, often it is not 100%, and often it is very delayed. What happens in the meantime? I would be grateful if the Minister could outline in more detail the implications of regulatory divergence between Great Britain and Northern Ireland—between the immediate implementation of this statutory instrument and the current position in the rest of the United Kingdom. The impact on small and medium-sized businesses has been mentioned. I note too that paragraph 9.5 of the Explanatory Memorandum states: “There is an impact on the public sector because the enforcing authorities … are the Northern Ireland district councils”. I hear from council members all the time about the straitened fiscal position they find themselves in. They are being lumbered continually with more and more investigatory, regulatory, enforcement and monitoring obligations and responsibilities as a result of European regulation. It is made much more difficult because they are now in a unique position of having to police this without any back-up or support elsewhere in the United Kingdom, because it does not apply elsewhere in the United Kingdom. I would be grateful if the Minister could tell us what resources will be given to district councils in this and other cases where they face greater regulatory monitoring and enforcement obligations as a result of the Windsor Framework.