§ Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domerasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they think any of the British regulatory regimes may be regarded as "more burdensome than necessary" for the purpose of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. [HL1139]
§ The Minister for Trade (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)No. Member countries of the World Trade Organisation are discussing, under a mandate in the GATS, whether "any necessary disciplines" need to be developed to ensure that measures relating to qualification requirements and procedures, technical standards and licensing requirements do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade and are not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service. Any such disciplines would not apply to national domestic regulatory regimes as a whole. No conclusions have yet been reached.
The Government's Principles of Good Regulation encourage UK regulators to ensure that regulations are targeted to focus on the problem concerned, with minimal side effects.
§ Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domerasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they believe that local government services which a local authority currently provides in partnership with a private or not-for-profit sector body would fall out with the General Agreement on Trade in Services regime; and [HL1140]
Whether they believe that they have issued procurement best practice guidelines to local authorities that have clarified the implications of Article 1.3 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services; and, if so, what wording they used. [HL1141]
§ Baroness Symons of Vernham DeanThe Government do believe that such services would fall outside the scope of the GATS. The service would still be one supplied by the local authority. Any decision to contract out to the private sector would need to be consistent with European Union public procurement rules and those of the World Trade Organisation Government Procurement Agreement. There are as yet no GATS rules on public procurement. The 11WA Government are in touch with the Local Government Association about the implications of the GATS for local government services.