Conflict Minerals (Compliance) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Baroness Northover Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd December 2020 Grand Committee

[Baroness Northover (LD) [V]]

My apologies—I was finding it quite difficult to hear the Minister, but I caught most of what he said and I thank him for introducing this SI. I declare my interests as in the register.

The Minister is right that the global attempts to tackle the association of minerals with conflict must be supported. We have long known about the resource curse which has afflicted countries with weak development and poor governance. I saw that clearly in Angola, where oil helped to fuel a 30-year civil war and then untold corruption—a situation which is at last being tackled.

The Kimberley process was brought in to try to ensure that diamonds were sourced in a transparent way, unsullied by conflict. The minerals needed for our mobile phones and electric batteries are sourced from some of the most conflict-affected countries in the world and we cannot turn a blind eye. The whole supply chain is rightly coming under increased spotlight.

The OECD emphasises that companies in the minerals supply chain must be more than simply reactive in this area; they need to be proactive in making sure that they respect human rights and do not contribute to conflict. We have seen many examples of this. We see it still in Latin America, and certainly in Africa. The DRC is blessed with substantial mineral reserves but the people living there are currently condemned to suffer violence from those fighting over extracting them.

The OECD published guidance in 2016 to assist companies in adhering to these guidelines. The EU followed suit in 2017 but strengthened it, so that the guidelines became mandatory. This is therefore yet another change that we need to address because of leaving the EU. The regulations relate to one part of those EU arrangements for certain minerals, which were due to come into force on 1 January, as the Minister has laid out. The regulations ensure that this is in place in Northern Ireland from 1 January.

Northern Ireland has the charmed status, as government Ministers have said, of being in the internal market of the UK and the internal market of the EU— just as we used to be. Therefore, under the Northern Ireland protocol, this needs to go into place. Can the Minister tell me whether the rest of the United Kingdom will also adhere to these rules, as my noble friend Lord Bradshaw asked? The Government are always saying that we will meet the highest of standards, outclassing the EU. Are we doing so here? What will happen to companies in the rest of the UK after the transition period ends?

I note that the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments said that these SIs were “defectively drafted” and the Minister’s department acknowledged this. In its report discussing the draft regulations, the committee stated:

“Regulation 8 enables the Secretary of State to serve a notice requiring a person to provide information”


on imports, where necessary, and that this may be imposed on, but is not limited to, EU importers. It goes on:

“Regulations 14 and 15, and the Schedule to the Regulations, contain provision for enforcing obligations imposed by the Regulations. However, this is limited to enforcing obligations imposed on Union importers.”


Therefore, the committee argued,

“the Regulations contain no provision for enforcing a requirement under regulation 8 imposed on a person who is not a Union importer.”

The Minister’s department has acknowledged that Regulation 8 was enforceable against EU importers only. Consequently, it said that it would

“bring forward amending legislation as soon as possible and that … the Secretary of State will not exercise the power to require production of information under regulation 8 against persons other than Union importers.”

Can the Minister tell us when this amending legislation will be brought forward? He does not have much time. Is this not a reflection of the overburdened department, for which he is now the single Minister in the Lords? It is in a state of reorganisation, at the same time as the country battles Covid and the Government have decided to take the United Kingdom out of both the single market and the customs union. My sympathies here are with the civil servants who drew up these regulations.

Can he also say when these regulations will be considered in the House of Commons, given that we have very little time before the transition period ends? There may well be one particularly large piece of business to get through before the Commons rises for Christmas—of course, if there is not, heaven preserve us. I look forward to the Minister’s response.