Balance of Competences (Review)

Thursday 27th March 2014 Written Statements

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Chris Grayling)]

I wish to inform both Houses that, further to the Foreign Secretary’s oral statement launching the review of the balance of competences in July 2012 and the written statements on the progress of the review in October 2012 and May 2013 the Ministry of Justice is launching its call for evidence in the area of information rights.

The report will cover the European Union’s action in the area of information rights. It will focus on the specific information rights expressed by the treaties and cover two key areas: the protection of personal data, and access by individuals to public information.

The call for evidence period will last at least 12 weeks. The Ministry of Justice will draw together the evidence and policy analysis into a first draft, which will go through a process of scrutiny before publication, which is due to take place at the end of 2014.

The Ministry of Justice will take a rigorous approach to the collection and analysis of evidence. The call for evidence sets out the scope of the report and includes a series of broad questions on which contributors are asked to focus. Interested parties are invited to provide evidence in relation to the impact or effect of the competence in their area of expertise. The evidence received (subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act) will be published alongside the final report and will be available through the balance of competences review webpages on gov.uk.

The Department will pursue an active engagement process, consulting widely across Parliament and its relevant committees, business, civil society, the devolved Administrations and legal practitioners. Our EU partners and the EU institutions will also be invited to contribute evidence to the review. As the review is to be objective and evidence based, we will encourage the broadest possible range of interested parties to contribute.

The report will be a comprehensive, thorough and detailed analysis of EU action in this area that will aid our understanding of the nature of our EU membership; it will provide a constructive and serious contribution to the wider European debate about modernising, reforming and improving the EU. The report will not, however, produce specific policy recommendations.

I am placing this document and the call for evidence in the Libraries of both Houses. The call for evidence will also be available through the balance of competences review pages on gov.uk