The risk is not real. In the past four years, there has never been an indication of any issue over which there would be that difficulty. It is a set of solutions in search of a problem. The UK Government’s line on that is changing constantly.
At the outset, convener, I want to make a very strong point. This morning, I listened with astonishment to a man called Paul Scully on “Good Morning Scotland”—to the best of my knowledge, I have never met him—who is, apparently, the UK’s small business minister. I want to quote what he said during his interview because it is absolutely untrue, but also because it indicates the changing story.
Speaking about the bill, Paul Scully said:
“Part of the reason that we are in this place in the first place”
is that
“we were dealing with common frameworks to try and build things to consensus”—
I agree with that so far.
“But the Scottish Government pulled out of that some time ago, and we need to get them back to the table to make sure that we can build that consensus, because this is good for Scottish business.”
Later on, he said:
“The reason that we’re legislating in the first place is ... because the Scottish Government walked away from some of the common frameworks discussions that we were having last year.”
That is categorically untrue. We have been working solidly on the frameworks with the UK Government. I said to the committee the last time that I appeared in front of it that we wish to complete that process, that we wish the frameworks to be negotiated and agreed, and that we will operate those as if they are all in place from 1 January 2021—the day after transition.
There is no danger at all of a difficulty with the single market. The common frameworks were designed to deal with that matter. Unfortunately, it is the UK that is now walking away from the common frameworks, because it wants to force all the devolved Administrations to accept really bad trade deals and much lower standards.
I ask Mr Scully to withdraw his remarks, which are absolutely untrue. I presume that they are made out of ignorance. If they are not, the situation is even more serious than we think.