Make your voice heard in Brexit!

There are three current opportunities for organisations to make their voice heard around the EU Withdrawal Bill.

The first is to the Exiting the EU Committee at Westminster who are looking for evidence around:

• What implications the EU (Withdrawal) Bill has for the devolution settlements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; and
• What implications the EU (Withdrawal) Bill has for rights protected under EU law.

There is no deadline for written evidence but the Committee will make decisions about invitations for oral evidence in the second week of October. You can read more detail here.

Secondly, the Scottish Parliament Finance and Constitution Committee are inviting evidence on:

• The appropriateness of the powers proposed in the Bill for UK Ministers and Scottish Ministers;
• The approach proposed in the Bill for repatriating powers which are currently competences of the European Union and the implications of this approach for the devolution settlement in Scotland;
• Whether there is a need to establish common UK frameworks to replace EU frameworks in devolved policy areas such as agriculture and environment; the appropriateness of the arrangements for these suggested by the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill; and alternative models for discussing, agreeing and operating any common frameworks that may be required;
• The suitability of current inter-governmental relations structures for a post-Brexit environment, and alternative processes and structures that may  improve the effectiveness of intergovernmental relations, in light of the process of EU withdrawal and the development of common frameworks;
• Mechanisms that could be put in place to ensure that the Scottish Parliament has sufficient oversight over the process of negotiating, legislating for and implementing Brexit, and of the exercise of powers conferred on Scottish and UK Ministers by the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.

Evuidence should be submitted to the Committee by 29th September.  You can read more here.

Finally, the Scottish Parliament Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee would specifically like evidence around the provisions in the Bill that give certain powers to Scottish Ministers and whether they are appropriate.  Evidence to this Committee should be submitted by 6th October.  You can read more here. 

To find out more about the HRCS’s work around Brexit, email hrcscotland.org or see www.hrcscotland.org/brexit

 

 

Image credit: Yanni Koutsomitis, Flickr