Instruments of interest
Draft Flags (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Regulations 2021
20.These draft Regulations propose changes to when flags are to be flown from Government buildings and courthouses in Northern Ireland to mark occasions in relation to the Royal Family. The instrument proposes to remove the birthday of His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh and Her Majesty’s wedding day from the list of designated days and proposes that the Union flag need not be flown on the designated days related to a member of the Royal Family who has died. These changes would align the rules in Northern Ireland with those in the rest of the UK. The instrument also makes proposals for the Union flag to be flown on the Proclamation of a new monarch. As required under the Flags Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000,8 the Secretary of State referred the draft Regulations to the Northern Ireland Assembly. A report of the debate has been provided alongside the Explanatory Memorandum.
Draft Wine (Amendment) Regulations 2021
21.These draft Regulations ensure that the UK meets its legal obligation under Annex 15 to the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) with the EU in relation to trade in wine. The instrument proposes changes to the lot marking of wine9 to allow EU wines to be marketed in Great Britain (GB) bearing a lot code that complies with EU law in a Member State. In addition, the instrument proposes transitional arrangements, so that EU wines that have already been produced, described and labelled but have not yet been put on the market, or those that are already in the supply chain can continue to be sold, on the basis that they met the requirements that were in force before the TCA was implemented. The transition period will be two years for producers and wholesalers of wine and until stocks have been exhausted for retailers.
22.The instrument also proposes changes to ensure that wines from the EU and other third countries imported into GB will not require a certificate and analysis report (known as a VI-1 certificate). The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that VI-1 certificates “serve no purpose to business or the consumer, and simply add unnecessary costs to the trade in wine”. We understand that this change has been welcomed by the wine industry which estimates that it will save the industry around £100 million per year.10 Defra told us that GB wine exported to the EU will have to be accompanied by a self-certified certificate which is “essentially a simplified version of a full VI-1 certificate” that can be authorised by the consigner exporting the wine and does not require a full analytical report other than details of the alcohol content.
23.While this instrument does not apply to Northern Ireland (NI), the Explanatory Memorandum states that arrangements for moving GB wine to NI will be looked at again once the current negotiations on the NI Protocol have been concluded. Defra told us that most movements of GB wine to NI currently fall within the Scheme for Temporary Agri-food Movements to Northern Ireland (STAMNI) which allows authorised traders such as supermarkets and their trusted suppliers to move some goods on the basis that they have completed the necessary compliance declaration and without the need for official certification. Defra added that because movements of GB wine to NI are very small, such movements may also fall below the 100 litre de-minimis requirements for a VI-1 certificate.
Draft Surveillance Camera Code of Practice 2021
24.This Code of Practice provides guidance on the appropriate use of surveillance camera systems by local authorities and the police based around 12 principles. Originally published in 2013, it is being updated to take account of legislative developments in data protection and to reflect the judgment in a case taken co-operatively to clarify the law on police use of live facial recognition: Bridges v South Wales Police.11
25.Live facial recognition uses software that scans a crowd, matching 50 faces per second against a “watchlist” database (for example people wanted by the courts, suspects, and those whose presence at the location is in breach of bail conditions or other restrictions.) The South Wales Police, who are piloting the technology, often mount cameras on police cars as a mobile unit and, although they take steps to inform the public using Twitter and A2 size posters and handing out postcard-size notices in the vicinity of each deployment, the court concluded that a large number of people whose facial biometrics are captured by the system would be unaware of it happening.
26.The revised Code reflects the judgment by restricting the use of live facial recognition to places where the police have reasonable grounds to expect someone on a watchlist to be: it cannot be used for “fishing expeditions”. The Code now requires that if there is no suggested facial matches with the watchlist, the biometric data of members of the public filmed incidentally in the process should be deleted immediately. Because the technology is new, the revised Code also emphasises the need to monitor its compliance with the public sector equality duty to ensure that the software does not contain unacceptable bias. We note that a variety of regulators are mentioned in the Code and urge the authorities always to make clear to whom a person who objects to the surveillance can complain.
8 Flags Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 (SR 2000/347).
9 Lot marking is used to track wine products that have been produced, prepared or packaged under the same conditions.
10 Wine and Spirit Trade Association , ‘WSTA scores historic win as Government announce scrapping of arduous and unnecessary wine paperwork’: https://www.wsta.co.uk/archives/press-release/wsta-scores-historic-win-as-government-announce-scrapping-of-arduous-and-unnecessary-wine-paperwork [accessed 3 December 2021].
11 Court of Appeal (Civil Division), Bridges vs. South Wales Police, [2020] EWCA Civ 1058 (August 2020).