Hansard

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests and declare that I am a member of the Faculty of Advocates.

I have to say that this has to be one of the most spurious debates about legislative consent that has been led by the Scottish Government to date. Let us remind ourselves of a few salient facts. The Scottish Parliament, at the behest of the Scottish National Party Government, has already given consent to the UK Government’s Environment Bill—the entire bill. It did so in November last year. The bill aims to tackle the biggest environmental issues facing the UK in the years ahead. It provides a legal framework for environmental governance now that the United Kingdom is outside the European Union, and it makes provision for specific improvement of the environment.

Most of the bill applies in England alone, but there are some provisions that apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For example, there are UK-wide provisions that create delegated powers. There are also shared powers, meaning that the regulations can be made for Scotland either by ministers here acting alone or by the UK ministers, with Scottish ministers’ consent.

There are also—this is important—a number of areas in the bill that extend to Scotland by virtue of their being reserved areas. As I said, Parliament passed a legislative consent motion on the bill last year. However, we now have the absurd scenario where, purely to manufacture another completely artificial row with the UK Government, the SNP takes issue with two amendments that, it argues, trespass on devolved competence—amendments that are designed to protect international rainforests and fill a governance gap on environmental policy. I note that the cabinet secretary has just said that he agrees with the first of those amendments. In committee, he said that it is broadly in line with Scottish Government policy—it is so broadly in line with Scottish Government policy that, this afternoon, the Scottish Government is challenging it. That is absurd—we are through the looking glass.

Let us look at each amendment in turn. The rainforest amendment is designed to protect rainforests around the world. It is a provision that allows UK ministers to make regulations that place an obligation on businesses to ensure that they do not import materials that have been produced on cleared rainforest land. [Interruption.] I am afraid I have a lot to get through, so I will not take an intervention.

The provision makes it illegal for businesses within scope to use, in either production or trade within the UK, forest risk commodities that have not been produced in accordance with the relevant laws in the country where they were grown. It is patently clear that the use of forest risk commodities, as it appears in the Environment Bill, is a reserved matter. It does not pertain to devolved law. The measures in question fall within the scope of reservations to the UK in the Scotland Act 1998 for

“the creation, operation, regulation and dissolution of types of business association.”

The obligations imposed by the bill on “regulated persons” are requirements of a formal regulatory nature, and “regulated persons” are defined as a type of business association. Therefore, what the requirements amount to is regulation of a business association explicitly for the purpose of a reservation in the 1998 act. It is illogical to argue that they are for environmental purposes generally, and that that somehow converts them into a devolved matter. As a matter of law and statutory language, the amendment is about the regulation of business entities, pure and simple, and it is unarguable from a legal and constitutional standpoint that that somehow intrudes on devolved competence. It is a sensible and worthwhile provision that is broadly in line with Scottish Government policy, but it is not a provision that the Scottish Government is prepared to accept today.

The second amendment will have the effect that, where UK Government ministers are making policy relating to reserved matters, they must have due regard to the policy statement of environmental principles in the UK bill. I stress the words “relating to reserved matters”. One might have thought it uncontroversial that the UK Government, when acting in matters solely within its own competence—that is, in relation to reserved matters—just might be entitled to have regard to a UK Government policy statement. That is not just in accordance with the devolution settlement; it categorically respects and reinforces that settlement.

As I have already said, the Environment Bill has already been consented to by this Parliament and it contains a number of provisions that extend to Scotland by virtue of their covering reserved areas. I give the example of the Office for Environmental Protection, whose remit in Scotland is liable to be fairly limited—it will be triggered whenever the UK Government exercises reserved functions in Scotland—because, of course, there is an equivalent Scottish body. Last year, when it came to consent for the bill, the Scottish Government had no objection to the OEP exercising reserved functions in Scotland, but, somehow, it takes issue with the provision that allows UK Government ministers, when making policy relating to reserved matters in Scotland, to have regard to their own policy statement of environmental principles. To argue that that tramples on devolution or infringes somehow on devolved competence, is, I am afraid to say, ridiculous. However, of course, nothing is too ridiculous for this SNP Government when it is trying to pick a fight.

I point to the comments of Kevin Pringle, who is the former director of communications for the Scottish National Party and who is someone I admire and respect, despite our being at different ends of the constitutional spectrum. Writing in The Sunday Times this weekend, he argued that there are political advantages for the SNP in wanting improved relations with the UK Administration. He wrote:

“as we begin the long recovery from the pandemic in our economy and public services, there must be a case for the governments at Holyrood and Westminster having a more co-operative attitude than we’ve been accustomed to ... where it makes sense”—

just like in the current debate.

There is no legal, constitutional or political reason to object to the amendments. Frankly, if the Scottish Government spent less time on its attempts to stoke division and more time on fighting climate change, we might be able to leave the environment in a better state than the one we found it in.

I move amendment S6M-01512.1, to leave out from “calls on the UK Government to respect” to end and insert:

“supports giving legislative consent to the UK Environment Bill; welcomes the UK Government’s commitment to the environment, and calls on the Scottish Government to work constructively with the UK Government in tackling climate change.”