Interparliamentary Forum on Brexit meeting - 25 October 2018

The fifth meeting of the Interparliamentary Forum on Brexit was held in Cardiff in October 2018.

Correspondence

Attendees agreed the statement below and wrote a letter to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with the key conclusions and recommendations made by the committees represented in the Forum on intergovernmental relations and interparliamentary relations.

Statement

The Interparliamentary Forum on Brexit met in Cardiff today, marking a year since the Forum’s inaugural meeting.

At the meeting, the Forum agreed to write to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Rt Hon David Lidington MP, copied to Scottish and Welsh Ministers, to express its view on current intergovernmental structures within the UK and in so doing, re-assert its view that:

“[…]the consensus view of committees is that the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) mechanism is not fit for purpose.”

The Forum also concluded that more effective intergovernmental and interparliamentary mechanisms are required to examine the future sharing of powers in order to deliver UKwide policies in areas currently governed by European Union frameworks.

Senior politicians, representing the committees leading on the scrutiny of Brexit in the House of Commons, House of Lords, Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales, met to discuss the state of the Brexit negotiations and consider how the governments and legislatures of the UK are working together in the interests of the citizens they serve.

Officials from the Northern Ireland Assembly also attended as observers.

This was the Fifth meeting of the Interparliamentary Forum and its discussions reflected the issues it has considered, including:

• progress of the Article 50 negotiations;
• European scrutiny during the transition/implementation period;
• inter-institutional relations;
• the scrutiny of common UK policy frameworks; and
• Withdrawal Agreement legislation.

The next meeting of the Forum will be held at the House of Lords in January 2019, where it will discuss the final stages of the Brexit process.

Attendees

• House of Commons
• Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, Chair of the Public Administration and Constitution Committee
• Hywel Williams MP, Member of the Exiting the European Union Committee
• Anna McMorrin MP, Member of the Welsh Affairs Committee

House of Lords

• Lord McFall of Alcluith, Senior Deputy Speaker
• Lord Boswell of Aynho, Chair of the EU Select Committee
• Lord Wallace of Tankerness, Member of the Constitution Committee
• Lord Thomas of Gresford, Member of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee
• Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope, Member of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee

National Assembly for Wales

• Elin Jones AM, Llywydd (Presiding Officer)
• Mick Antoniw AM, Chair of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee
• David Rees AM, Chair of the External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee

Northern Ireland Assembly

As the Northern Ireland Assembly is not currently sitting, officials from the Northern Ireland Assembly attended as observers.

Scottish Parliament

• Bruce Crawford MSP, Convenor of the Finance and Constitution Committee
• Adam Tomkins MSP, Deputy Convenor of the Finance and Constitution Committee
• Graham Simpson MSP, Convenor of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee