Britain will alter the retained EU law (REUL) bill to define which laws it plans to repeal this year, rather than removing all European Union legislation by the end of 2023, according to the government.
In January, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokeswoman stated that the government will not extend the end-of-year deadline for replacing any European Union legislation maintained after Britain leaves the EU in 2020.
However, commerce and trade minister Kemi Badenoch said on Wednesday that, rather than automatically revoking practically every preserved EU legislation, the government will alter the bill to suggest cancelling just roughly 600 of the approximately 4,000 kept EU regulations.
“Today, the Government is tabling an amendment… which will replace the current sunset in the Bill with a list of the retained EU laws that we intend to revoke under the Bill at the end of 2023,” Badenoch said in a ministerial statement.
“This gives businesses certainty by making it clear which regulations will be removed from our statute book, rather than highlighting only the REUL that will be saved.”
Since Britain’s departure from the EU in 2020, 1,000 EU rules have been repealed or modified, according to Badenoch, and a financial services bill will repeal 500 more.
Alistair Smout contributed reporting. Andrew MacAskill did the editing.
