EU law: 'Stop me if you think you've heard this one before'

摘要

Two years after the UK formally left the EU, the Prime Minister has announced that the government will bring forward a "Brexit Freedoms' Bill" that will "clarify the status and operation of retained EU law, with the aim of ensuring that retained EU measures can be amended in a proportionate and sensible way" The Bill will therefore "create new powers to amend retained EU law by way of domestic secondary legislation, where appropriate." The Bill will be accompanied by yet another "Better Regulation" initiative, with "a major cross-government drive to cut ￡1 billion of red tape for businesses" and "ease regulatory burdens". Boris Johnson's statement essentially comprises a repackaging of measures that have been previously announced or consulted upon, although it is underpinned by a new government policy document, The benefits of Brexit2. The government had already announced, in a statement3 to the House of Lords by Lord Frost, on 16 September 2021 that it would conduct a systematic review of all EU-derived law, including that on health and safety, and introduce a new mechanism to expedite the amendment and repeal of such laws (HSB 503 p.1). (Lord Frost was at the time the Cabinet Office minister of state responsible for the implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)4 and the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, before later resigning. He had previously been the UK's former chief negotiator for exiting the EU.