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After two committees on Brexit-consequential regulations today (there are hundreds and I am whip for Health and Defra so am on a lot of them!) I am more concerned than ever about the threat of a 'No Deal Brexit' and the consequences of any Brexit.
Food safety. Medicines. Medical devices. Protection of natural habitats. Water. Chemicals. These are just some of the regulations I have been on committees for in the last fortnight alone.. We keep getting told it is just a simple cut and paste from EU rules. It is not.
For example, frequently there are changes to who is responsible for enforcing the rules from an EU body to a UK one. With barely any time, certainly no sign of extra resources and rarely any consideration of who will staff these. With consequences for food safety, medicines etc
Then there is the problem of the cut and paste process itself. How do we know this has been accurately done? These are often hundreds of pages of dense text, very legal. Govt civil servants are definitely doing their best. But so many have been transferred because of Brexit.
And for assistance with scrutiny we in Opposition parties have no civil servants and few specialist staff, relying on external bodies who are, like us, struggling with the sheer volume. All left to the last minute. Hundreds of these changes.
And several Bills still MIA, e.g. Fisheries and Agriculture Bills. So I keep asking government privately and publicly, how can they possibly be confident that we will have a functioning statute book at 11.01pm Friday 29th March if we leave the EU? I can add up. There is no way.
