91.The purpose of these draft Regulations is to prohibit the use of electric shock collars for cats and dogs in England. These are remote-controlled electronic training collars (“e-collars”) which can deliver an electric current to the cat or dog wearing it. The instrument would make it an offence to attach an e-collar to a cat or dog and to be in possession of a remote-control device which is designed for activating the collar. The penalty would be an unlimited fine.
92.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that e-collars which do not deliver an electric shock, anti-bark collars, and electronic containment systems will remain legal. This includes training collars that emit sound, vibration, or some other non-shock signals. According to Defra, this is to help owners with a disability and owners of animals with physical impairments to retain control of their animal when voice, sound or other recall methods cannot be used. The draft Regulations include an exemption for the Armed Forces; any use of e-collars for defence purposes would be subject to the Ministry of Defence’s internal animal welfare standards and permissions.
93.A seven-week public consultation in 2018 received more than 6,700 responses, of which 64% opposed making it an offence to attach an e-collar to a cat or dog and 63% opposed making it an offence to be responsible for a cat or dog which has an e-collar attached.22 In response to the feedback received during consultation, Defra decided not to pursue a proposed ban on electronic containment systems, but the Department did go ahead with the ban on remote-controlled e-collars. Defra told us that unsuccessful judicial review proceedings brought against the Department by the Electronic Collars Manufacturers’ Association had delayed legislative progress. The judicial review related to the duration of, and the supporting information supplied for, the consultation.
94.These draft Regulations propose the establishment of a Responsible Actors Scheme (RAS) for developers, as part of the Government’s approach to addressing urgent building safety issues following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, protecting leaseholders from bearing costs unfairly and ensuring that industry contributes towards putting right historic building safety defects.
95.Under the RAS, members will be required to identify and remediate life-critical fire safety defects in residential buildings over 11 metres in height which they developed or refurbished in England between 1992 and 2022. The draft Regulations propose a planning prohibition and a building control prohibition for developers and persons they control who opt out of the RAS or do not comply with its conditions. This is to prevent them from carrying out major developments and from receiving building control approvals. Several exemptions from the prohibitions are proposed, for example for projects necessary for critical national infrastructure or to allow emergency repair works.
96.According to the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), the RAS is intended to support a level playing field in the industry, so that developers which make a commitment to remediate building defects are not disadvantaged. DLUHC estimates that the 46 developers who have already signed the developer remediation contract which underpins the RAS have committed to fixing at least 1,100 residential buildings over 11 metres in height. The Department told us that, due to a lack of data on buildings with non-cladding defects, it was unable to provide an estimate of the total number of buildings that require remediation. Better data is available, however, on buildings with cladding-related defects, and DLUHC estimates that at the end of March 2023:
97.This instrument provides for an eighth two-year extension, from 31 July 2023 to 31 July 2025, of the provision that allows trial without jury for certain cases in Northern Ireland (NI). The Northern Ireland Office states that these provisions continue to be necessary, citing continued paramilitary activity and an increase in the terrorism threat level in NI from “Substantial” to “Severe” in March 2023. Non-jury trials can only take place if the Director of Public Prosecutions in NI certifies that certain conditions are met—for example, potential juror prejudice or witness intimidation—leading to a risk that a jury trial would impair the fair and efficient administration of justice.
98.In recent years there have been independent annual reviews of the operation of the provisions.23 A working group has also considered practical measures to reduce the number of non-jury trials and has recommended a set of indicators that the Secretary of State could use to assess whether the non-jury trial provisions remain necessary.24Use of the provision remains low: the Explanatory Memorandum states that there were eight non-jury trial cases in the Crown Court in 2021 out of a total of 1,358.
99.These draft Regulations propose changes to the Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (England) Regulations 2023 (“the Data Reporting Regulations”)25 which require producers of packaging to collect and report data on the amount and type of packaging that they place on the market. The data is needed to calculate the fees that these producers will have to pay to cover the cost of managing this packaging as part of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging scheme which will launch in 2024. Amongst other changes, the draft Regulations would clarify the data reporting requirements for reusable and refillable packaging and simplify this reporting for producers, allowing producers to offset, that is reduce, their fee if they have collected this packaging at its end of life and sent it for recycling.
100.We have received a submission from Green Alliance which questions how this offsetting will work, and how the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will ensure that the ability to offset obligations will not create incentives for producers to recycle potentially reusable packaging before it reaches the end of its useful life, to avoid paying producer fees. In response, Defra explained that:
“To ensure we are maximising recycling rates and encouraging efficient and effective local authority collection systems we are not allowing producers to off-set single-use packaging that is widely recyclable through local authority collection services. Whilst at the same time encouraging producers of packaging to consider and invest in their own reuse systems.
Where producers do manage packaging that is not commonly collected for recycling, or as part of a re-use system, they will have incurred costs directly in its management.
Through the amending SI we have added clarifying wording to ensure that the ‘reusable packaging’ reported as part of ‘relevant packaging waste’ tonnages needs to have been ‘reused’ before it becomes waste.
Where producers fail to record or report this data as required or they knowingly or recklessly furnish false or misleading information to the regulators, they will be guilty of offences under the offences and penalty provisions. Regulators will compliance monitor the reporting of this data as part of their functions under these regulations and will use the data obligations on reusable packaging systems to support them in their compliance monitoring of these reporting provisions.
Government will keep these provisions under review and should it become evident that they are not having the intended effect, shall review what revisions may be necessary as part of the phased implementation of EPR.”
101.We have published the submission and Defra’s response in full on our website.26
102.This instrument adds the following four occupations to the list of those for which job applicants can be asked questions about their spent cautions and convictions: chartered management accountants; fire and rescue authority employees; justice system intermediaries, and notaries. The Explanatory Memorandum states that checks are “necessary to assess a person’s suitability” for these roles and that the measure will “mitigate risks to public safety”.
103.When applying for most jobs, offenders do not have to disclose certain convictions and cautions once a period of time, varying with the seriousness of the offence, has passed. This is intended to help ex-offenders find employment. However, there are exceptions for specified positions of public trust, where a more complete disclosure of an individual’s criminal record is considered appropriate.
104.Alongside each of the new exceptions, guidance is being developed, in conjunction with organisations advocating for those with criminal records, to support employers in taking a proportionate approach and in encouraging them to recruit people with criminal records. We encourage the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the power to seek checks is used proportionately and does not unduly deter the employment of ex-offenders.
105. This instrument gives legal recognition to a name change announced in August 2021: it deals with the re-naming of the company appointed as the Strategic Highways Company under the Infrastructure Act 2015 from ‘Highways England Company Limited’ to ‘National Highways Limited’. We found the Explanatory Memorandum obscure and have asked for it to be replaced, so that it clarifies the rationale for the change and sets out the costs of the “re-branding”. The House may wish to ask the Minister to explain the choice of new name, which we found unclear as the ‘National Highways’ remit does not extend to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
106.These Regulations allow HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to spend money developing the UK’s Single Trade Window (STW). The STW is a system intended to make international trade easier for UK-based companies by providing a single platform where traders will submit all their border declarations, with the data then being shared across relevant government departments and agencies. The Government have stated that the STW is a key feature of its aim to have “the most effective border in the world”, as set out in the 2025 Border Strategy.27
107.The Border Strategy identified HMRC as the body that would deliver the STW. However, HMRC’s functions are confined to those set out in legislation; for example, the collection and management of tax. This instrument, therefore, provides the necessary consent for STW spending. Funding of £180 million was allocated in Spending Review 2021.28 The first elements of STW are due to be available by the end of 2023, with further functionality added in stages and the complete service due to be operational by 2027. Further legislation may be required to deliver some elements of STW.29
108.These Regulations implement certain treaty commitments in relation to a new cross-border programme in Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland, PEACE PLUS, that will fund activities and projects that promote peace, reconciliation and economic development in NI and the border region of the Republic. PEACE PLUS has total funding of £1 billion, of which the UK is contributing £730m, with the remainder from the EU and the Republic of Ireland. The UK will provide funding for PEACE PLUS until 2027, although the Regulations allow for projects to continue after this date up to 2032, when the programme will be wound up.
109.The commitments being introduced include that the implementing body, the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), established under the Good Friday Agreement, complies with certain EU requirements, including in its operations in NI. In making these provisions, the Regulations are implementing the terms of the ‘Financing Agreement’ between the UK, the EU and the Republic that established PEACE PLUS. This Agreement was laid as a treaty before Parliament on 24 March 2023 under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRAG) process. The Northern Ireland Office told us that the EU requirements relate to operational matters; for example, that SEUPB must establish a website for the programme and must publish a list of its operations and set out accounting practices.
22 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Consultation outcome: Animal welfare: banning the use of electronic training collars for cats and dogs, August 2018 [accessed 5 May 2023].
23 Northern Ireland Office, ‘Annual Reports of the Independent Reviewer of Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007’ (April 2021): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-reports-of-the-independent-reviewer-of-justice-and-security-northern-ireland-act-2007 [accessed 5 May 2023].
24 HM Government, ‘Consultation Response: Non-Jury Trials Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007’ (April 2023): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1152630/HMG_response_to_NJT_Consultation_2023__1___1_.pdf [accessed 5 May 2023].
25 Draft Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (England) Regulations 2023, see: 21st Report (Session 2022–23, HL Paper 111).
26 Scrutiny evidence webpage: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/255/secondary-legislation-scrutiny-committee/publications/8/scrutiny-evidence/.
27 Cabinet Office, ‘2025 UK Border Strategy’ (17 December 2020): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2025-uk-border-strategy [accessed 25 April 2023].
28 HM Treasury, ‘Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021’, para 2.190 (27 October 2021): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-and-spending-review-2021-documents [accessed 9 May 2023].
29 Cabinet Office, ‘The UK Single Trade Window Public Consultation’ (21 July 2022): https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-uk-single-trade-window-public-consultation [accessed 9 May 2023].