Call for written evidence: Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Aims of the Bill

The Bill would completely overhaul a body of UK domestic law known as “retained EU law” (REUL). That body of law was created by the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EUWA) as amended by the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 (EUWAA) and came into existence at the end of the post-Brexit transition period (ie the end of 2020).

The Bill, most notably, would:

• place a “sunset” on REUL – causing most, but not all, of it to expire at the end of 2023
• enable, via statutory instrument, most REUL (if it takes the form of legislative instruments) to be exempted from the sunset
• enable the “sunset” to be postponed (for some but not all REUL) until as late as 23 June 2026, via statutory instrument
• rename any remaining retained EU law after 2023 “assimilated law”
• formally abolish, for wholly domestic law purposes, the principle of supremacy and other general principles of EU law after 2023
• enable the effects of supremacy and general principles of EU law to be preserved or recreated in specific cases, via statutory instrument
• give the UK courts a new legal framework for reconciling inconsistent sources of law when they include those of EU origin, which ministers can influence via statutory instrument
• grant a suite of delegated powers to UK ministers and devolved authorities to revoke, restate, replace or update REUL/assimilated law by statutory instrument
• remove or downgrade existing forms of Parliamentary scrutiny of statutory instruments when they propose to modify or revoke law of EU origin
• expand the permitted use of Legislative Reform Orders (LROs) so that they can revoke retained direct EU legislation
• abolish the Business Impact Target in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (SBEEA)

Follow the progress of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill was presented to the House of Commons for its first reading on Thursday 22 September 2022. The second reading debate was held on  Tuesday 25 October.

• Bills before Parliament: Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill
• Read Explanatory Notes: Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill
• House of Commons Library Briefing Paper

Oral evidence sessions are expected to be held on 8 November.

Guidance on submitting written evidence

Deadline for written evidence submissions

The Public Bill Committee is now able to receive written evidence. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration and possibly reflect it in an amendment. The order in which amendments are taken in Committee will be available in due course under Selection of Amendments on the Bill documents pages. Once the Committee has dealt with an amendment it will not revisit it.

The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee is expected to be on Tuesday 8 November and the Committee is scheduled to report by Tuesday 22 November. However, please note that when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Tuesday 22 November. You are strongly advised to submit your written evidence as soon as possible.

Your submission should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk

Further guidance on submitting written evidence can be found here.

Image: Parliamentary Copyright