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The UK government is pressing ahead with legislation that will allow it to revoke or modify EU laws retained after Brexit, although the potential implications are much less than previously envisaged.
When the Retained EU Law Bill was first introduced to Parliament by former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, it included a 31 December 2023 cut-off date where laws made in the EU would expire, unless ministers actively decided they should be kept in place.
That plan had prompted concerns that important EU-derived laws relating to the likes of environmental protection might inadvertently be removed in the process, given the thousands of pieces of legislation to be worked through.
Many of the rules that protect farmers such as beef labelling, carcase classification and marketing standards were also potentially affected.
However, the new Sunak-led government has decided to change tack, with his business secretary Kemi Badenoch explaining to MPs on Tuesday that the bill now includes a schedule listing out legislation being removed, rather than being retained.
“What I realised is that the law of unintended consequences had reared its head,” she told MPs, adding that business groups had warned that the original bill was creating uncertainty.
Competitive
She argued that the legislation will ultimately make the UK more competitive, although she did acknowledge that most of the legislation being removed is actually just redundant.
The current schedule published in May 2023 lists around 600 pieces of EU legislation to be scrapped, including historic rules on export refunds for beef and import duties for milk.
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