The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-10-19.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to lay before Parliament for scrutiny the outcome of the negotiations for leaving the EU before those negotiations are concluded.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The Government will comply with all the constitutional and legal obligations that apply to the deal that we will negotiate with the EU.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-04-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government in the event of the UK leaving the EU what advice they plan to give to UK citizens who work or live in EU member states related to their legal rights generally, their rights related to UK pensions and to medical care paid for under the NHS social security system, and their right to travel across EU without the need of visas.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
UK citizens get a range of rights from our membership of the EU. If the UK were to leave the EU, all of these rights would have to be covered in a successor arrangement. If we left the EU without agreeing what would happen to these rights, it would at the very least bring them into serious question, creating difficulty for UK citizens who relied on them.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-04-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the UN Secretary General’s remark during his visit to Algeria from 6 to 7 March that the Western Sahara is occupied”.”
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The UN and UK consider that the status of Western Sahara is undetermined. Since he made his remark, the office of the UN Secretary General has expressed regret at the misunderstanding over the use of this word.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-04-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the event of the UK leaving the EU, the UK would have to leave the EU electronic banking system, the Single Euro Payments Area, by which funds can be transferred across the EU.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
The paper ‘The process for withdrawing from the European Union’ set out that a vote to leave the EU would be the start, not the end, of a process. It could lead to up to a decade or more of uncertainty. One consideration for the UK Government would be how to avoid regulatory gaps in the UK’s domestic legislative framework once the EU Treaties ceased to apply. This would involve questions over how existing EU law could or should be adopted into domestic law.
At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU.
In April 2016, HM Treasury published analysis that shows that if the UK leaves the EU, the UK would be permanently poorer. The analysis estimates an annual loss of 6.2% of GDP after 15 years, which is equivalent to £4,300 per UK household. The negative impact to GDP would result in weaker tax receipts, which would be £36 billion a year lower. This is more than a third of the NHS England budget and the equivalent of 8p on the basic rate of income tax.
These estimates are based on a central scenario: leaving the EU to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with Europe, along the lines of that which took Canada seven years to negotiate.
Through a range of realistic assumptions, many of them cautious, the HM Treasury analysis produces objective and robust estimates, which are within the range of external studies.
A full assessment of the short-term implications of leaving the EU will be published in a further government document.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-06-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which trade agreements would have to be individually negotiated in the event of a vote to leave the EU in the forthcoming referendum, broken down by region.
Lord Price
As set out in the Government’s documents to inform the debate ahead of the referendum, were the UK to leave the EU, as well as losing the UK’s guaranteed access to the Single Market, the UK would also lose the use of the EU’s free trade agreements with over 50 economies worldwide. These countries are listed on page 45 of the Government’s “Alternatives to membership: possible models for the United Kingdom outside the European Union”. This page also provides a map highlighting trade agreements in place, those under negotiation, and those currently being planned for.