The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (REUL) puts at risk thousands of laws that cover the protection of the environment, food and farming standards and public health. It also has implications for laws that protect our rights as citizens, consumers and workers.
It is a bill that has few friends. Criticism has come from businesses, civil society groups, trade unions and legal groups. The Government has set itself the huge task of revisiting thousands of laws with an ill-advised and unnecessary deadline of the end of 2023. There can be no doubt that this will require mammoth amounts of civil service time.
Defra alone now has 1781 pieces of legislation in scope. The Government updated its REUL dashboard (which lists the regulations at risk) on 30 January 2023 with an additional 1200 pieces of legislation for Defra. This represents an increase of 67%. While there is scope for some laws to be subject to a later sunset of 2026, this power is only available to Ministers of the Crown and not to devolved administrations. This could lead to gaps in the UK’s legal framework.
Published 2 Feb 2023
REUL: Campaigning for high food and farming standards and for trade deals that don’t undermine them.
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