Good afternoon,
There is still no trade deal agreed between the UK and the EU. Some details on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund have finally been revealed in the spending review. The UK Internal Market Bill continues to progress through Parliament and we have a brief bonus explainer podcast about it. As per usual we have events and recommended reading.
Enjoy,
Jacob
In Politics
Is There A Deal?
There is still no trade deal between the UK and the EU
A quick update. There is a month left until the UK leaves the transition period. There is still no sign of a trade deal agreed between the EU and the UK. There has been minimal progress of negotiations reported but they continue with Barnier due in London tonight. If a deal is agreed it is going to be a deal that would have been described as a Hard Brexit.
If you would like to understand more about trade deals, why they are important, how they affect you, how it isn’t just about car parts, and how there is a democratic deficit in the UK when negotiating trade deals listen to This Is Important: Trade Deals.
UK Shared Prosperity Fund
No consultation on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund
More details to come in spring and later next year
Fund does not look to be established until 2022
This week Chancellor Rishi Sunak set out his spending review. This is in place of the three year Comprehensive Spending Review that has been delayed multiple times. This spending review is for one year instead of three.
Key details for civil society include new information about the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. If you are unfamiliar with where we are at with the fund, or why the fund is needed, listen to This Is Important: UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Janine Downing (WCVA) and Belinda Pratten (Equally Ours) explain how the UK has benefited from EU funding, what would happen if the funds are not replaced, and what the fund should look like.
First the details set out in the spending review hint that the fund will not come to fruition until 2022. This leaves little time for organisations to prepare as the UK leaves the transition period in less than a month.
Secondly the promised consultation about the design of the fund has not appeared and looks to have been scrapped. This consultation has long been promised by the Government.
Third details are still slim. A portion of the fund will be targeted at places “most in need across the UK, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities.” However the details for this funding will not be given until the next spending review. It also goes on to state that “the government will set out further details of the UKSPF in a UK-wide investment framework published in the spring.”
The document does state that “The government will ramp up funding, so that total domestic UK-wide funding will at least match current EU receipts, on average reaching around £1.5 billion a year.”
There is little mention of how the devolved administrations will be involved in distributing the funds. As highlighted in This Is Important: UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the devolved administrations, and many civil society organisations in the devolved regions, have done significant work on the potential for the UKSPF. Distribution via the UK Government also relies on powers that have yet to be passed in the form of the Internal Market Bill (more information on the Bill below) which in itself are controversial powers that enable the UK Government to bypass devolved administrations.
These new details about the UK Shared Prosperity Fund are welcome however more detail is needed on issues such as when organisations will be able to apply for funding, what the criteria will be, and whether the application process will be more accessible than the EU funding process. Time is running out and waiting until spring or 2022 for further details is unhelpful for those organisations and communities relying on the replacement of the EU funds.
In Policy
UK Internal Market Bill
House of Lords passes amendments to the Bill
Bonus episode explaining the Bill
The UK Internal Market Bill has passed its first hurdles in the House of Commons and is now progressing through the House of Lords. This legislation is incredibly controversial for a range of reasons. It threatens the rule of law, devolved settlements, and the maintenance of high standards across the UK.
The House of Lords Have already defeated the government on several amendments. The Institute for Government has a useful explainer outlining the key amendments to the Bill.
This Bill is very complex and wide ranging in the negative effects it could have in the UK. To understand more I spoke to Charles Whitmore the Coordinator of the Wales Civil Society Forum on Brexit for a bonus explainer episode of This Is Important. You can listen and subscribe here.
Charles explains how the Bill threatens the rule of law, what key terms such as “mutual recognition” mean and the impacts of it on our ability to uphold high standards, and how the Bill has the potential to undermine devolved administrations.
In collaboration with the Wales Civil Society Forum on Brexit we have published a range of briefings on the UK Internal Market Bill. You can read them here and here. The Bill continues its passage through the House of Lords and will be in the chamber next Wednesday for Third Reading before it goes back to the Commons.
LISTEN NOW
In Parliament
Watch Commons and Lords debates and Committee sessions free on parliamentlive.tv
House of Commons
Tuesday 1st
Environment Bill - Debate - Further to consider the Bill (at 9:25 am and at 2:00 pm) Location: Room 10, Palace of Westminster
Wednesday 2nd
Northern Ireland Affairs Committee - Oral evidence - Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol (at 8:45 am to 11:30 am) Location: Virtual meeting
Committee on the Future Relationship with the European Union - Oral evidence - The shape of future parliamentary scrutiny of UK-EU relations (at 9:00 am to 12:00 pm) Location: The Macmillan Room, Portcullis House
Thursday 3rd
Committee on the Future Relationship with the European Union - Oral evidence
Progress of the negotiations on the UK’s Future Relationship with the EU (at 9:00 am to 12:00 pm) Location: The Macmillan Room, Portcullis House
House of Lords
Monday 30th
Orders and regulations - Draft Animal Welfare and Invasive Non-native Species (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020
Orders and regulations - The Agricultural Products, Food and Drink (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020; Draft Food (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020
Orders and regulations - Draft European Union Withdrawal (Consequential Modifications) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020
Orders and regulations - Draft Definition of Qualifying Northern Ireland Goods (EU Exit) Regulations 2020
Tuesday 1st
Orders and regulations - Food and Feed Hygiene and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020
Orders and regulations - Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (Democratic Consent Process) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020
Common Frameworks Scrutiny Committee - Oral evidence - Post-Brexit common frameworks (at 9:45 am to 12:00 pm) Location: Virtual meeting (webcast)
Wednesday 2nd
Legislation - United Kingdom Internal Market Bill - third reading
In Events
Ensuring a “Race to the Top” for human rights in a post-Brexit UK
Tuesday 8th December
15:00 to 16:30
FREE
Speakers:
Mhairi Snowden – Human Rights Consortium Scotland (Chair)
Professor Alan Miller, co-Chair of National Taskforce on Human Rights Leadership, Scotland
Professor Colin Harvey, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Liz Shannon, Equally Ours, England
Professor Simon Hoffman, Swansea University, Wales
After a very long period of navigating and debating the conditions of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, Brexit continues to cause uncertainty and anxiety for the future of human rights across the UK.
With speakers from all regions of the UK we will explore the positive human rights developments in each part of the UK, how similar developments can be enhanced and replicated in the other jurisdictions and what civil society and the public can do to help support a race to the top for human rights.
This event is part of the ‘Brexit, Devolution & Rights' webinar series, co-hosted by the Brexit Civil Society Alliance, the Wales Civil Society Forum on Brexit, the Human Rights Consortiums in Scotland and Northern Ireland and SULNE. The webinar series explores what the next stages of Brexit and beyond mean for fundamental rights across the 4 parts of the UK.
Recommended Reading
"A UK-EU deal is needed for Northern Ireland" on the UK in a Changing Europe
"First-year EU students face £800 Brexit bill if not in UK before 2021" in the Guardian
"No-deal Brexit would hammer UK economy, warns Office for Budget Responsibility" in the Independent