Baroness Coussins
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UK-EU Summit
Baroness Coussins Excerpts(1 day, 20 hours ago)
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Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)
My Lords, there are another five minutes left.
Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)
I am always happy to accept congratulations. The noble Lord makes a very important point about living in the real world. The issue of alignment came up a moment ago. If you look at what has happened already, you find that there has not been the divergence that we were told was going to happen. That is why the paperwork that British businesses have to go through in order to export is such nonsense and a burden for them. This is about living in the real world and doing the best we can for the economy and the people of this country.
Baroness Coussins (CB)
My Lords, the Statement read out by the noble Baroness the Leader said that this arrangement will do away with the long delays faced by lorry drivers with rotting food in the back. Can she say whether it will do away with the long delays faced by coach-loads of schoolchildren on school trips to France? Since the Government did away with the group passport scheme, groups of 40 or 50 school- children all have to get off the coach and be individually checked, which occasionally results in the coach driver hitting the legal drive time limit and abandoning the coach altogether. Will this new arrangement see the reintroduction of the group passport scheme or an equivalent replacement scheme to facilitate educational school trips for children?
Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)
The noble Baroness highlights one of those issues that was never thought of as going to be a problem. I am pleased to hear that schools are still going on trips. I have heard of so many schools not undertaking trips because of the problems, with many schools cancelling trips because of the complications of taking them. I do not think it was discussed at this summit; it is not in the papers I have seen, but I will find out. I will certainly ensure that it is raised in the future.