Brexit - what now? The scrutiny starts here
The House of Lords European Union Committee, Parliament's biggest body that scrutinises EU legislation and policies, will next week start its scrutiny of the process for the UK exiting the EU.
The Committee, and its six sub-committees, are holding a series of linked short inquiries into aspects of Brexit. The EU Select Committee will coordinate these inquiries and continue to hold the Government to account, seeking to ensure that the process and negotiations for exiting the EU are properly managed and transparent.
The Committee will begin this work on Tuesday 6 September with two evidence sessions in Committee Room 3 of the House of Lords.
The first session will focus on the role of Parliament in scrutinising the Brexit process. The Committee will ask expert witnesses how Parliament can most effectively scrutinise Brexit negotiations. The Committee will also ask what impact the Prime Minister's announcement that she will not trigger Article 50 before the end of the year will have on negotiations and how the need for negotiations to be conducted confidentially can be reconciled with effective parliamentary scrutiny.
The second session will cover the impact of Brexit on UK-Irish relations. Areas that will be covered in the meeting with the Irish Ambassador include the possible impact of Brexit on the Irish land border, the Common Travel Area, North/South relations on the island of Ireland, and the rights of UK and Irish nationals to live and work in each other's countries.
The details of the witnesses are:
3:05pm Brexit: parliamentary scrutiny
- Jill Barrett, Senior Research Fellow in Public International Law, British Institute of International and Comparative Law
- Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, former Head of the UK Diplomatic Service
- Professor Derrick Wyatt QC, Emeritus Professor of Law, Oxford University, Brick Court Chambers
4:05pm Brexit: UK/Irish Relations
- His Excellency Dan Mulhall, Irish Ambassador to Britain
The EU Committee's sub-committees are currently also launching short inquires on aspects of Brexit, including police and security cooperation, the rights of UK citizens living in the EU and of EU citizens living in the UK, the impact of Brexit on financial services, trade and access to the single market, and fisheries.
