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Alison Thewliss Excerpts

Wednesday 9th January 2019 General Committees

[Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Sharma. I wish all members of the Committee a happy new year, as this is the first time I have seen them this year.

I echo many of the comments of the hon. Member for Oxford East, particularly about the impact assessments. It is deeply concerning that we do not have the detail on the three instruments before us. The Minister knows that I look at the impact assessments in great detail, as I have quoted figures from them in previous Delegated Legislation Committees, and it is extremely concerning that we are expected to approve the measures with no real idea of their financial impact or the implications for the number of organisations involved—all that detail that is so useful when it comes to our considerations in Committee. The Government must do something about that. We have lots of these instruments coming up, and although I appreciate the time pressures and difficulties of the situation, if we do not have that information we really are making these decisions blind. That is not acceptable, certainly not in a democracy and certainly not given the seriousness of the situation.

I was struck by the very helpful and considered contribution of the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay, which was based on his extensive experience of the matter. He talked about it being now highly likely that the provisions in the draft orders will take effect. The language in the notes provided for such instruments has also changed significantly from last year. Instead of saying that it is highly unlikely that the provisions will be needed, it now says that the Government have every confidence that a deal will be reached and an implementation period will be in place, but that it is their duty to plan for all eventualities, including a no-deal scenario. That is a significant shift from where things were last year, and we can see the difficulties that it will cause, particularly if, as the hon. Gentleman says—he knows far more about this than I do—the draft orders are not adequate for the task at hand.

The Minister talked about consultation responses. The draft orders have gone out for consultation and responses have come back. We do not really have any idea how many people were consulted and how many responded, or the substance of those responses. It strikes me that other Committees that look at legislation get evidence; it is published and we can see it. However, for these Committees we do not get evidence. I trust the Minister on many things, but we have to trust his saying that all the responses were fine, because we, as members of the Committee and members of the Opposition, have no idea about their substantive content.

If concerns were raised similar to those of the hon. Gentleman, we will not see them, because we have not seen that evidence. I ask the Minister to think about that, and to ask if anything more can be done to give us more access to the consultation responses. Unless we attempt to go out and contact all possible organisations, which we cannot really do as ordinary Members or as party spokespeople, and unless we are specifically given that information, we will not know it. It is difficult for us to get it. I appreciate that the Government have a different job to do in asking for that evidence, but for us to seek it ourselves is impractical, given the speed of the passage of these SIs.

The Minister helpfully mentioned the total number of staff at the FCA, which was good to hear. If he can give us any more detail as to how many might work on the provisions in each of the separate instruments, that might also be useful. I am always looking for more information about how many staff at the FCA will be required to work on these provisions, should they be implemented. We need an idea of the capacity there and how difficult or otherwise it might be to keep control over these draft orders should they be implemented.

I reiterate concerns I have raised before about the extensive powers that the Treasury is taking for itself in the future. I appreciate very much the Minister saying that Parliament has the option to scrutinise further, through a written statement or through an SI to extend any future powers if required. However, I am not quite certain how effective that will be. We need some idea of Parliament’s role in all of this as we go forward, because if changes are made in the EU, changes will obviously need to be made here so that we have a degree of equivalence in standards, because otherwise things will completely fall apart. It would be good for Parliament to scrutinise these provisions as we go forward.

It would be useful to know the level of consultation with organisations in Scotland. I am always interested in that. Some of the draft orders will have an impact in Scotland. It would also be useful to know the Government’s response to the concerns of the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay about communication, timing and accuracy. I appreciate that we are under the pressure of time. It might be useful to extend article 50 to give us more time, but in the meantime it would be good to know the answers to these questions and to those that others have raised. There are real concerns about the scrutiny of these provisions now and in the years ahead.