Shadow Minister for Finance and North Wales, Mark Isherwood MS, has today challenged the Welsh Government over the legal action it has applied to take against the UK Government’s UK Internal Market Act 2020.
The Labour Welsh Government announced last week that it it is seeking to take the UK Government to Court over the new law that sets the rules of trade between different UK nations after Brexit.
Taking part in today’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood questioned the Counsel General over the decision.
He said:
“The EU (Withdrawal) Bill, which received Legislative Consent from this Senedd, agreed that UK-wide Frameworks to replace the EU rulebook would be freely negotiated between the four UK Governments in areas including food, animal welfare and the environment.
“As your colleague, the Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs, said in her Statement on the Inter-Ministerial Group for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last autumn, ‘I insisted frameworks had been designed to help understand and manage divergence between the four administrations. Indeed, the Inter-Ministerial Group, at this meeting, agreed a refreshed approach to the finalisation of frameworks to ensure all reach a provisional and useable level by the end of this year’.
“Last month, in a positive response to the House of Lords, UK Ministers unveiled new amendments to the UK Internal Market Bill that will protect the ‘common frameworks’ agreed with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, preventing barriers to internal trade within the UK which would disadvantage Welsh consumers and businesses.
“Why, therefore, are you using public resources to take legal action against the UK Government, when these agreed Frameworks enable current levels of flexibility to be maintained within agreed common approaches?”
Responding, the Counsel General said:
“I should just say that the amendments had the effect, simply, of giving the Secretary of State the discretion to amend the devolution settlement where a framework has been agreed. When one says that out loud, I think the challenges with that are transparent enough: firstly, that the devolution settlement should be capable of being amended by UK Government Ministers in any event, and secondly, that it should be a matter of discretion. Those are two of the examples why we think the Act needs to be challenged in court, and part of the rationale for us doing so.”
Speaking afterwards, Mr Isherwood added:
“In reality, the UK Government placed Common Frameworks in the UK Internal Market (UKIM) Bill, and clarified the relationship between the agreed Common Frameworks and the internal market principles established by the subsequent UKIM Act. Under the Common Frameworks programme, the UK Government and the devolved Governments agreed to work towards common approaches in areas that were previously governed by EU law, but are otherwise within areas of devolved competence, to enable a functioning internal market within the United Kingdom.
“Failure to have proceeded with the UKIM Act would have risked divergence within the UK internal market, placing barriers to internal trade between businesses across the UK. Businesses, especially as we emerge and build back from the pandemic, require the certainty that UKIM provides.”