Trade in services must be a priority at Party Conferences - Law Society
Party conferences should be an opportunity for all political parties to show that they recognise the importance of legal services to our economy, says Andrew Kidd, social mobility ambassador and Treasurer of the Society of Conservative Lawyers.
After a short – although eventful – two weeks in Parliament after the summer, both Houses rise again for conference recess until 9 October. As usual, party conference season begins with the Liberal Democrats who this year are in Bournemouth (16-19 September), followed by the Labour Party in Brighton (24-27 September) finishing with the Conservatives in Manchester (1-4 October).
Conferences are a great opportunity to hear more about what issues are dominating policy-makers’ agendas across the main political parties. The speeches give the senior teams an opportunity to make big announcements and reshape their priorities. The fringe events can showcase new party thinkers and the highlight ideas and themes that may shape the main political agenda in the future.
What should the parties be thinking about?
It’s encouraging to see that the Law Society has organised an extensive programme of activities, which aims to engage with the main English and Welsh political parties to represent the priorities of solicitors.
The Law Society sees the priorities for the profession this year are to ensure:
- Legal certainty is maintained as the UK leaves the EU and its customs union
- Every individual has effective access to justice
- Modern slavery is combated, and
- The UK remains a world leader in protecting human rights and continues to be so once the UK has left the EU.
For all parties, but particularly the Conservatives, the UK’s departure from the EU – and its potential effect on the economy – is undoubtedly going to dominate many of the big speeches and fringe events.
We’ve seen some positive steps in the last few weeks, with the Government publishing a range of position papers. For solicitors, and our wider justice system, it was a welcome relief to see the Government recognise the importance of international civil justice co-operation. For example, the Government stated that it would continue to be part of international mechanisms that increase the speed and certainty of judgments such as the Hague and Lugano Conventions.
Over the last 40 years the UK has been instrumental in the EU’s introduction in measures which help consumers, families and businesses to gain easier access to justice across borders and solicitors will no doubt welcome the Government’s desire to continue to work towards close and comprehensive civil justice co-operation with the remaining jurisdictions of the EU.
However, we await more detail on the Government’s position on trade in services. Legal services contribute £25.7 billion annually – including £3.4 billion in net exports – to the UK economy which is itself services based. Given this, clarity on our future trade in service arrangements with the EU will be particularly welcomed by solicitors.
Party conferences should be an opportunity for all political parties to show that they recognise the importance of services to our economy. Currently UK solicitors and their EU counterparts have few restrictions to their ability to support clients across the EU. However without a comprehensive deal with the EU on services, UK solicitors could face a different regulatory regime in each jurisdiction of the EU27. It is encouraging to see that the Conservative manifesto recognised UK legal services as a major export. Without free trade in this area there would be a significant regulatory burden for solicitors to carry and represent barriers to a very valuable sector.
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