Balance of Competences

Debate between Lord Hague of Richmond and Elizabeth Truss

Thursday 12th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I hope that the review will indeed provide that information. Not everyone will think that the right conclusion has been drawn, but it will make the biggest single contribution to the provision of information on which we can base policies in the future. I welcome the work that has already been done by, for instance, the Fresh Start group, of which my hon. Friend is a leading member, because that is exactly the kind of active, positive and constructive thinking about Europe that we need to see and that should feed into the review.

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

I congratulate the Foreign Secretary on the review. Can he confirm that it will examine the costs of EU regulation, not just in its own context but by comparison with the costs of regulation around the world? It worries me that the UK currently ranks 83rd in the World Economic Forum’s regulation league table.

[Mr Hague]

Of course the review will be able to examine that issue, and my hon. Friend, among others, will be able to make representations about it. Part of the argument about how competence is exercised, and about the level of government at which it should be exercised, relates to the costs that are involved, and it will therefore be wholly legitimate to consider such questions.