Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Government departments are allowed to make use of non-disclosure agreements when consulting outside interests on the preparation of statutory instruments relating to the possibility of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU on 29 March.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Government departments may make use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) when structuring their engagements on preparations for leaving the EU, which is a crucial component of planning. It is for departments to determine the manner in which engagement with stakeholders takes place and this can include discussions about statutory instruments (SIs).
Given the sensitive nature of some discussions, there may be limited circumstances in which departments have used NDAs to enable more stakeholder engagement than would otherwise be the case.
All the SIs help provide certainty for businesses and the public by ensuring a functioning statute book when the UK leaves the EU. The majority are needed in either a deal or no deal scenario, as they will be deferred to the end of an implementation period if no longer needed on 29 March.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance has been given to Government departments on conducting impact assessments on statutory instruments relating to the possibility of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU on 29 March.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Departments have been provided with guidance that the impact of EU Exit Statutory Instruments (SIs) should be assessed in line with standard practice by following the existing Better Regulation Framework, in accordance with HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance. This includes SIs that are being introduced to fix deficiencies to allow current systems or regulatory provisions to operate following the EU (Withdrawal) Act or following a no deal scenario.
All EU Exit SIs are published on gov.uk and legislation.gov.uk and where appropriate, impact assessments are published alongside them and detailed in the explanatory memoranda.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will continue to present to the House of Lords statutory instruments relating to the possibility of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU on 29 March if the House of Commons votes to avoid a no-deal exit.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As a responsible Government we will continue to plan for all scenarios, this includes no deal.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many statutory instruments relating to the possibility of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU on 29 March have been prepared in accordance with Cabinet Office guidance on consultation principles; and what alternative processes were used for those instruments not prepared in accordance with this guidance.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Departments use existing Cabinet Office principles on consultation for EU Exit SIs and non-exit SIs.
The government has laid 331 EU Exit SIs so far. Details of any consultations undertaken are explained in all SI’s accompanying Explanatory Memoranda. These can be found on gov.uk and legislation.gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government why they are producing statutory instruments relating to the possibility of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU on 29 March which include a number of policy areas consolidated in the instrument; and how they came to that decision.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
All EU exit statutory instruments help provide certainty for businesses and the public by ensuring a functioning statute book when the UK leaves the EU. The majority are needed in either a deal or no deal scenario, as they will be deferred to the end of an implementation period if no longer needed on 29 March.
The Leader of the House of Commons and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union wrote to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee on 19 November updating the Committee on secondary legislation. They explained that in some cases, departments have combined measures to form coherent packages in order to aid public understanding. This letter was published in the Committee’s 43rd report of this session.
Departments continue to refine the drafting and policy content of each SI. All secondary legislation - not least that relating to exiting the EU - has to be accessible and usable. In some cases having a number of separate instruments that are closely related or cross-cutting would be to the detriment of that.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many statutory instruments relating to the possibility of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU on 29 March are now awaiting consideration by the House of Lords; and how many of those are subject to the affirmative procedure.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As of 21 January the Government has laid 331 EU Exit statutory instruments. The number awaiting consideration changes daily, but all the laid SIs to be considered and their procedure are available in the House of Lords Business and on legislation.gov.uk.
All the instruments help provide certainty for businesses and the public by ensuring a functioning statute book when the UK leaves the EU. The majority are needed in either a deal or no deal scenario as they will be deferred to the end of an implementation period if no longer needed on 29 March.