Northern Ireland After Brexit (Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee Report)

Lord Empey Excerpts

Wednesday 25th March 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, I speak in the gap. I was a member of the committee when this report was written. I wanted to be here to support it and suggest that it should be read, particularly by those who perhaps have only a peripheral knowledge of Northern Ireland. We were greatly assisted by our staff. I had the pleasure of being on the previous committee chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Jay. With him and the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, we have been well served by two excellent chairs and a great team to back it up.

My first point is to suggest that the committee’s remit is temporary; it is only two years since it was set up. I cannot see circumstances in the immediate future when there will not be a necessity for this committee to carry out scrutiny of Northern Ireland issues. While I know it is not the Minister’s responsibility but a matter for the House, I want to put it on record that this committee should continue. It is inconceivable that such significant matters, affecting not only constitutional but economic areas, should not be looked at somewhere in Parliament. I commend that to the parties in the House.

The issue that is now called the one-stop shop, from the sub-committee that was formed in 2021, has been a consistent theme. How is it that we cannot record each divergence as we go along? Now we will have to go back five years, but it should have been obvious to anybody at the beginning that there should be somewhere that a business or a member of the public can go to see what the divergence is. Or, if you are going to a potential inward investor, you should have somewhere to show them that this is how we do it here and how we do it there. It is not rocket science and I hope that we can resolve it, because it has been a unified theme throughout this debate.

I have to say that the Minister has just been accorded a well-deserved promotion to the Cabinet Office. She is roaring with power; now is the chance to strike and get a commitment that this will be dealt with and that she will deliver the response.

I gently remind the noble Lord, Lord Lilley, of the phrase—attributed, I think, to Dr Johnson—that there is nothing as permanent as the temporary. I fear that this problem will be around for some time. He is right to say that the European Union is entitled to protect its market, but I have to say that we have gone OTT. There is the potential for somebody to bring goods into Northern Ireland that are inappropriately manufactured and inconsistent with European regulations, they could theoretically get across the border, but to do that the person would have to go through two or three different sea journeys at enormous expense. I think there is an alternative way. The noble Lord mentioned one, but there are others that could involve the Northern Ireland Assembly and perhaps other institutions that have been set up in recent years. There is no reason why we should have to punish our local businesses and consumers. I am quite sure that, with the right attitude in the negotiations, that can be achieved.

I have asked several Parliamentary Questions about this. Under the trade and co-operation agreement, 2026 is a year of review. I would like to believe that the Government have a clear strategy for this review and that these issues will be in it—not simply in the reset but in the review that is under the terms of the treaty.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

How could I ever turn down an invitation from the noble Lord? Of course, I am more than happy to meet him to go over the debate. More importantly, officials can be there to make sure that what he wants is reflected so that we can actually make this work. We are taking a pragmatic approach to try to make this work and make it as easy as possible, while at the same time hoping to negotiate an SPS deal that takes away a great many of the issues we are talking about.

No one could doubt for a second the commitment of the noble Lord, Lord Caine, to the people of Northern Ireland and to trying to make these issues work. He touched on the issues of Safeguarding the Union and his PQs—obviously, I sign off every one. I realise that I am now over time, but I am more than happy to have a meeting with the noble Lord to discuss Safeguarding the Union, if that is acceptable to him.

I want to reassure noble Lords on some points, starting with noble Baroness, Lady Sanderson, whom I assure that the interface will be user-friendly—or else—and will be focused UK-wide. The noble Baroness, Lady Foster, asked about hauliers, and I hope I have responded to her in full. If I have not, I will look at what she said and come back to her.

The noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, asked me about parliamentary committees in the other place. She will be aware that how it chooses to engage is a matter for the other place, and for Parliament as a whole, but I am delighted that noble Lords had the Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee doing this very important work. I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Murphy, and the noble Baroness that we have accepted all the noble Lord’s recommendations and are seeking to implement them—one of the questions touched on that.

The noble Lord, Lord Caine, asked me about future legislation. I reassure him that we will talk about this—I would suggest in this Room, but possibly on the Floor of the House—in the next Session, subject to me now getting told off by the Chief Whip.

In conclusion, the message from this debate is clear: we must continue to listen to and act on the voices of businesses and civic society in delivering Northern Ireland’s trading arrangements. I give the Committee the continued commitment of the Government today that we will always take practical actions on concerns to protect the UK internal market and flow of goods, be that east-west or north-south. As we do so, our focus will remain on the prize of delivering real prosperity, where Northern Ireland remains one of the fastest-growing economies of the UK, in part thanks to its unique trading position and businesses having certainty about the facilitations available to move their goods under the Windsor Framework.

However, I am aware of the ongoing complexities of how this is operating on the ground and, on that basis, I will visit Northern Ireland very soon. Noble Lords, especially those in Northern Ireland, will be aware that I am not allowed to say exactly when, but I will be in Northern Ireland imminently to see how the Windsor Framework is operating on the ground. I will meet key stakeholders who are delivering this, as well as businesses, to see what next steps the Government should consider.

The Government will support only those trading arrangements for Northern Ireland that protect its place in the UK and its internal market, avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland and can be agreed. While there is more to be done to ensure that Northern Ireland’s voice is heard in London, Belfast and Brussels, the Windsor Framework really does provide the best basis for that, and we are committed to working alongside our partners in the Northern Ireland Executive and the EU institutions as we take it forward, alongside new agreements with the EU, so that we may build an even brighter and more prosperous future for people in Northern Ireland and across the whole United Kingdom.

I again thank the committee for its report and I look forward to continuing to work with it in the coming months—I really hope that I did not disappoint my noble friend Lord Carlile. On that final note, I wish all members of the committee a happy Easter and chag Pesach sameach.

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

Before the noble Baroness sits down, I ask for clarification on one point, and if she does not have it right now, perhaps she could write and put it in the Library. There are two parallel processes here. There is the EU reset and there are the specific conditions in the trade and co-operation agreement, where it is specified that there will be a review in 2026. I have asked the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, and others a number of times whether the Government were preparing for those. We have two separate processes, one a treaty obligation and one a set of political negotiations. We need to know what we are doing, otherwise we are going to get confused. If the noble Baroness does not have the minutiae of it at hand, I would be more than happy if she would write to me.

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I will write to the noble Lord.