Draft Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Lighting Products) Regulations 2021 Draft Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Amendment) Regulations 2021

Alan Brown Excerpts

Wednesday 8th September 2021 General Committees

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Miller. It seemed appropriate that the shadow Minister mentioned “tedious” as I stood up to speak.

In the Minister’s opening remarks, she spoke about products being reusable and recyclable, and I wonder how much that is applicable to these regulations. They copy EU regulations, and the explanatory notes make it clear that because of the Northern Ireland protocol, we do not want any differentiation between Great Britain and Northern Ireland as that would mean differentiation within the UK. Does that mean that, in this magnificent, post-Brexit world, the UK Government will always mirror EU regulations to avoid that differentiation?

How confident is the Minister about the carbon savings and the savings for consumers and businesses that are detailed in the explanatory memorandum? Is there anything that can be done to go further, because carbon savings are not saving money although they are clearly a good thing as we project through to net zero? Was a consultant employed to design the new labels that will effectively replace the EU flag with the Union flag? Was a consultant needed to do that and how much did that cost?