Balance of Competences Review (Progress Report)
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

William Hague (Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; Richmond (Yorks), Conservative)

I wish to inform the House that, further to my oral statement at the launch of the balance of competences review on 12 July 2012, Official Repo rt, column 468, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is today publishing the timetable for the review including departmental responsibility for the reports into each individual area of competence.

The review will complete its work during 2014 and will look at the scope of the EU’s competences (the power to act in particular areas conferred on it by the EU Treaties) as they affect the UK, how they are used, and what that means for Britain and our national interests.

The review will be divided into four semesters, each containing six to 10 reports. This will allow reports on related topics to be grouped together. The reports from each semester will be published at the end of that semester. If necessary, changes to this timetable will be made in order to take account of any events which could impact upon the timing of a report. The semesters are:

The first semester reviews will be:

an overview on the single market;

taxation;

animal health and welfare and food safety;

health;

development; and

foreign policy.

The single market encompasses such a broad area of competence that it is being split, with further reports on the four freedoms—goods, persons, services and capital—in semesters two and three.

Departments will take a rigorous approach to the collection and analysis of evidence. The Government Department leading each review will, at the appropriate time, publish a call for evidence which will set out the scope of their report and include a series of broad questions on which they would like contributors to focus. The calls for evidence for first semester reports will be published shortly and will be available through the FCO website and through the website of the Department leading each review. The reports into the first six competences will be published in the summer of 2013, along with the evidence received, subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act.

Government Departments will consult widely, including Parliament and its committees, business, the devolved Administrations, and civil society in order to obtain evidence to contribute to their analysis of the issues. Our EU partners and the EU institutions will also be invited to contribute evidence to the review.

The result will be a comprehensive, thorough and detailed analysis of where competence lies and what it means for the United Kingdom. It will aid our understanding of the nature of our EU membership;

and it will provide a constructive and serious contribution to the wider European debate about modernising, reforming and improving the EU. The review will not produce specific policy recommendations.

I am placing the timetable in the Library of the House. It will also be published on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website:

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/global-issues/european-union/balance-of-competences-review