Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Lord McNicol of West Kilbride Excerpts

Wednesday 13th February 2019 Grand Committee

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords, perhaps I will be more positive about these regulations and make the Minister feel better. I very much welcome the tone of the Explanatory Memorandum and its emphasis on the benefits of energy efficiency, which is clearly one of the least costly and most effective ways to reduce our carbon footprint. In fact, energy efficiency is one of the reasons why although energy prices have gone up, energy bills for households have gone down. This time, the irony is on not the Government but the broader British media because the famous Brussels-regulations-related vacuum cleaner efficiency scandal foisted on British citizens by the tabloids will remain. I welcome those product standards coming across.

My question are quite practical. I think that the Minister went through this, but who will police or register this matter and what will the additional cost of that be? Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, who will hold the register? Is the IT for that complete? How will what is on the European Union register get on to the UK register? That covers a series of intellectual property rights issues. We came across this with the REACH chemicals database: you cannot just copy this information across. How can we have a robust system that works in this regard? Without that, this scheme cannot work.

I understand the Minister’s point about continuing labels for a while but, more importantly, will it be legal to sell all the electric appliances covered by this SI in our home market from the point of our departure? I want to understand whether the preparation in those technical areas is right and things will work. Legislation is great but if it cannot work, even passing these regulations is not a lot of use.

[Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Lab)]

My Lords, again, I am standing in for my noble friend Lord Grantchester so I apologise to my team in the Box if I do not get the language quite right. I spent time going through the regulations. The SI is quite a tome. I feel as if it covers more than just one issue and a number of SIs have been merged together.

I start with a point about no deal because large swathes of the SI cover that scenario. I know that it also covers what will be needed if there is a deal, but the parts of the SI covering a no-deal scenario would not be needed if the Government agreed with us and ruled out a no-deal Brexit. That would save so much effort, energy, time and money.

Looking at the specifics, like the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, I have a number of questions flowing from the draft SI. I want to work through those issues, some of which are technical and some of which are a bit wider than that.

The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee declared the draft SI of interest to the House. I am sure that it will be scrutinised further after today. One of the big themes that came through—and one of my concerns—is about the powers that would be moved to the Secretary of State. There are a number of issues around that. The Minister said that these powers are about protecting and preserving the current standards, possibly increasing and building on them, but I do not see that in the language of the draft SI. Part of it says that the Secretary of State will,

“implement the strategy set out on page 44 of the Clean Growth Strategy which is to ‘keep step with equivalent standards [after exit]’”—

but then, “wherever possible and appropriate”. My reading of those words leads me to believe that the Secretary of State may not decide that keeping a level playing field or keeping the standards at a specific level is possible or appropriate, so those standards could dip. A bit of clarification from the Minister would be very helpful.

As has been touched on, the instrument also creates a stand-alone UK regime for third-party product verification, to be established in further detail in later SIs. Can the Minister assure us that these SIs will deal with that under the “made affirmative” procedure rather than the negative one? The text of the instrument is far longer than most, running to more than 80 pages; the five quite distinct schedules and areas contained in it could and should have been separated into separate SIs.

The Government have also chosen not to produce an impact assessment since, as they say, there will be “no imminent change”. Can the Minister clarify what this means? Are we talking about a week, a month or a year? As has been mentioned, there are financial, operational, organisational and oversight issues involved in setting up new bodies.

On page 7, paragraph (7) of proposed new Regulation 2A states:

“Where the Secretary of State removes the reference to a standard from publication, that standard is no longer a designated standard”.


Does this mean that the standard no longer exists in that area? If so, does that raise any implications or concerns?

The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, asked how other bodies would be constituted and what consideration was given to them. I look forward to the Minister’s response to that. On page 11, paragraph (4)(a) of proposed new Regulation 22 says that the Secretary of State must,

“consider the life cycle of the product and all its significant environmental aspects, including its energy efficiency, and the feasibility of their improvement”,

and paragraph (4)(f) says that they must,

“consult on the draft implementing measure”.

I seek clarification from the Minister on which bodies and organisations would be consulted on the draft measures. This would be helpful for the future.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Henley]

I was not thinking of those who had reached the maturity of 40; I was thinking of the somewhat younger ones who, despite their extraordinarily green credentials, take a slightly less purist approach to turning off lights and other procedure.

I shall deal quickly with some of the questions. On the impact assessment, I assure the noble Lord, Lord McNicol, that the instrument’s impact was assessed at below the annual cost of £5 million, which was why a full impact assessment was not required, but a de minimis impact analysis was undertaken to reach this conclusion and, in doing so, the department followed the guidance, so we are happy about that.

On consultation, I assure both noble Lords that we worked very closely with the industry and other organisations, meeting them and keeping them up-to-date via email. Last summer, officials met all the appropriate trade bodies to consult them. Views were sought on the proposal to keep the design of the energy label, remove obligations in relation to the EU product database and retain the legislative functions carried out by the Commission for the Secretary of State. In the main, as far as I know, the trade bodies supported all those proposals and stressed the importance of not imposing new costs on businesses and the UK being able to legislate after exit.

I shall deal with some of the more detailed points. The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, asked about the policing of this. Ecodesign enforcement and control activities are carried out by the Office for Product Safety and Standards. Energy labelling enforcement and control activities are carried out by that office and local authorities’ trading standards departments in Great Britain and by the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland. The regulations will not result in any change in that policy.

The noble Lord also asked who holds the products register and whether there is one for the UK. There is no UK database, but there is an EU-wide database, which went live on 1 January this year. There have been delays on the public section of that database, but it remains broadly on track and, after exit, we will review whether to introduce a UK database. Again, I can give the assurance that we will consult on that. He also asked whether all appliances under the SI will be covered from the point of exit, and I can assure him that the changes come into force from exit day and there will be no gaps.

The noble Lord, Lord McNicol, was concerned that there could be a reduction in standards, but I can assure him that we continue to support all these policy measures, which cut energy bills and increase energy security. As stated in the Clean Growth Strategy, we will keep step with equivalent standards, but intend to go further where, as I think I said in my opening remarks, we believe that is in the interests of the UK.

I have dealt with the noble Lord’s concerns about consultation, but I just correct myself on the affirmative nature of SIs. Only the SIs that are not identical to EU standards will be affirmative. If they are not identical to EU standards, they will be negative. I think I have it the right way round.

[Lord McNicol of West Kilbride]

It is the other way around.

[Lord Henley]

It is the other way around, but the noble Lord has understood me anyway. He also wanted clarification on “designated standards” in the Explanatory Memorandum. The instrument renames the EU’s harmonised standards—the testing standards that can be used for the verification of products’ compliance with EU requirements—as “designated standards”. Designated standards will give rise to a presumption of conformity with UK legal requirements in the same way that the EU’s harmonised standards do in relation to EU requirements. To ensure continuity and not drive up testing costs, the testing standards in the UK and the EU will remain the same. That is what the UK industry wants. The reference to designated standards will again be published on GOV.UK. I believe that deals with the points that have been raised.