Vol. 809 Friday No. 169 8 January 2021 PARLIAMENTARYDEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDEROFBUSINESS EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement Motion to Take Note......................................................................................................361 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. No proofs of Daily Reports are provided. Corrections for the bound volume which Lords wish to suggest to the report of their speeches should be clearly indicated in a copy of the Daily Report, which, with the column numbers concerned shown on the front cover, should be sent to the Editor of Debates, House of Lords, within 14 days of the date of the Daily Report. This issue of the Official Report is also available on the Internet at https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2021-01-08 In Hybrid sittings, [V] after a Member’s name indicates that they contributed by video call. The following abbreviations are used to show a Member’s party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Ind UU Independent Ulster Unionist Lab Labour Lab Co-op Labour and Co-operative Party LD Liberal Democrat LD Ind Liberal Democrat Independent Non-afl Non-affiliated PC Plaid Cymru UKIP UK Independence Party UUP Ulster Unionist Party No party affiliation is given for Members serving the House in a formal capacity, the Lords spiritual, Members on leave of absence or Members who are otherwise disqualified from sitting in the House. © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2021, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 361 Arrangement of Business[8 JANUARY 2021] EU-UK Trade & Cooperation Agreement 362 House of Lords to be provisionally implemented and our future relationship with the European Union to begin. As I Friday 8 January 2021 said in this House at Second Reading: “The nature of any compromise is that not everyone gets what The House met in a hybrid proceeding. they wish for.”—[Official Report, 30/12/20; col. 1921.] Overall, however, this deal is good for both the United 11 am Kingdom and Europe. A no-quota, no-tariff deal is good news for families and businesses in every part of Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Rochester. the United Kingdom. This Canada-style agreement, worth more than Arrangement of Business £650 billion, is the first free trade agreement based on Announcement zero tariffs and zero quotas that the EU has ever reached with an independent country. As of 1 January, 11.06 am the United Kingdom now enjoys full political and The Deputy Speaker (Lord Faulkner of Worcester) economic independence. The pledges made to the (Lab): My Lords, the Hybrid Sitting of the House will British public during the 2016 referendum and in the now begin. Some Members are here in the Chamber, general election last year have been delivered. From others are participating remotely, but all Members will now on, our laws will be determined by our elected be treated equally. I ask all Members to respect social politicians, and MPs will be accountable to the voters distancing. If the capacity of the Chamber is exceeded, who send them to Parliament to legislate on their I will immediately adjourn the House. The time limit behalf. for the following debate is five hours. The Canada-style agreement takes back control of our laws, borders, trade, money and waters. It ends EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement any role for the European Court and protects the Motion to Take Note Belfast/Good Friday agreement. It provides certainty for business, from service providers to our world-leading 11.06 am manufacturers—including our car industry—thus safe- guarding highly skilled jobs and investment across our Moved by Lord True country. That this House takes note of the Trade and We have protected the integrity of our internal Cooperation Agreement reached between the United market and Northern Ireland’s place within it thanks Kingdom and the European Union. to the agreement on implementing the protocol that Relevant documents: 32nd Report from the Delegated exists as part of the withdrawal agreement. That was Powers Committee, 21st report of the Constitution struck with the European Union earlier in December Committee by my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. To support traders in preparing The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Lord True) for the end of the grace period, the UK Government (Con): My Lords, in opening in this difficult week, I will work with supermarkets, retailers and their suppliers affirm our unqualified and unending respect for this to move to new end-to-end digital systems that will Parliament and its institutions, and for democracy enable goods to be moved in accordance with the and democratic decisions. protocol in the most streamlined way possible. This will be backed by a major injection of new UK I am grateful to be opening this debate. No fewer Government funding as part of the broader support than 125 noble Lords took part in last Thursday’s package we have announced. debate for the Second Reading of what was then the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill, but the My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the time for contributions and reflections was necessarily Duchy has also been working hard to ensure that our compressed—as it is again today, I understand. With borders and the many businesses involved in trading much still to pore over and deliberate, I welcome the with the European Union were prepared for the end of opportunity—as, I know,will my ministerial colleagues— the transition period on 31 December. To that end, the that today’s occasion affords to take your Lordships’ Government have worked closely with hauliers, carriers wisdom further. I particularly look forward to hearing and relevant operators on the requirements of a number the maiden speech of my noble friend Lord Wharton of systems. All the necessary changes, including changes of Yarm. to IT systems, were carried out successfully in the Since last we were here together, we have welcomed run-up to 31 December. in a new year and a new chapter for the United In addition, we have put in place measures of Kingdom. We have kept faith with the British people support to mitigate potential teething problems following who voted in 2016 to leave the European Union in the our exit from the EU customs union and the single largest democratic exercise in this nation’s history: a market and will continue to work with stakeholders to vote for freedom, for parliamentary sovereignty and work through any disruption that arises. But noble for change. Lords should recognise that, even though we have left I am grateful to your Lordships for enabling the behind the EU customs union, the EU single market Bill’spassage in such unusual circumstances.Its enactment and, indeed, the EU’s entire legal order, we are not into law enabled the trade and co-operation agreement walking away from Europe—quite the reverse. This 363 EU-UK Trade & Cooperation Agreement[LORDS] EU-UK Trade & Cooperation Agreement 364 [LORD TRUE] and effective exchange of national DNA, fingerprint agreement—this new chapter for global Britain—is and vehicle registration data via the Prüm system to also the beginning of our new partnership with our aid law enforcement agencies investigating crime and closest neighbours. terrorism. We have already seen that friendly co-operation at The Government are already taking advantage of work. On New Year’s Eve, the Foreign Secretary the opportunities available to us as an independent, announced that, working side by side with the Chief sovereign nation, and we will continue to do so. As of Minister of Gibraltar and following intensive discussions 1 January, we abolished the tampon tax, honouring a with the Spanish Government, we reached agreement government commitment. This was made possible only on a political framework to form the basis of a separate by the end of the transition period and the freedom treaty between the UK and the European Union regarding from EU law mandating VAT on sanitary products. Gibraltar.Wehave sent this to the European Commission Last week my noble friend the Leader of the House to initiate negotiations on the formal treaty. All sides set out the fundamentals of the trade and co-operation are committed to ensuring border fluidity, which is agreement. I have focused on some of them today and clearly in the best interests of the people living on both given the House an update. Webelieve that the agreement sides. We remain steadfast in our support for Gibraltar will help unlock investment and protect high-value and its sovereignty. We have a warm and strong jobs right across the United Kingdom, from financial relationship with Spain, which we look forward to services through to car manufacturing. The UK can building on in 2021. now regulate in a way that suits the UK economy and On financial services, this agreement provides a UK businesses, doing things in a more innovative and stable foundation for us to develop our future relationship effective way without being bound by EU rules. We with the EU and facilitate new arrangements to promote will now take full advantage of the remarkable international financial services trade. Alongside the opportunities available to us as an independent trading agreement we have agreed a joint declaration on regulatory nation, striking trade deals with other partners around co-operation in the area of financial services.