Brexit legislation that could result in 2,400 laws disappearing overnight – including a ban on animal testing for cosmetics, workers’ rights and environmental protections.

[Kendodd]

Does anyone know about this? The government seem really keen to rip up everything. AIBU to be worried or is it not going to happen?

www.gov.uk/government/news/the-retained-eu-law-revocation-and-reform-bill-2022

www.theguardian.com/law/2022/oct/24/post-brexit-proposals-mean-2400-laws-could-disappear-lawyers-warn

Before that date, Government departments and the devolved administrations will determine which retained EU law can expire, and which needs to be preserved and incorporated into domestic law. They will also decide if retained EU law needs to be codified as it is preserved, in order to preserve policy effects the Government intends to keep.

The Bill includes an extension mechanism for the sunset of specified pieces of retained EU law until 2026. Should it be required, this will allow departments additional time where necessary to assess whether some retained EU law should be preserved.

Have you all written to your MP? Have they said they’re intending to just get rid of all of them? Because as I read it it seems it’s more that they’re discussing which ones to keep and incorporate into domestic law. They can’t keep using EU law obviously. I can’t find anything on which ones they intend to keep and incorporate, they haven’t said they’re all going completely have they?

Let's hope they have an effective civil service who can keep track of the laws.

Otherwise something is going to happen, people will ask why they didn't follow the law and they will say. well, we got rid of the law.

@WahineToa do you understand just how many laws this is talking about? It is simply not possible to properly undertake this as a democratic exercise in ten years let alone one year.

all those laws were developed over years

developing laws is an incredibly complicated and tome
consuming process

this is an absolutely shocking thing to do in what is meant to be a democratic country with the rule of law

it is an absolute betrayal of the fundamental values underlying the uk political and legal system

it is difficult to understate how much less Britain will be as a functioning demoncratic system underpinned by the rule of law

its like if you decided that you didn’t like the loft room you put kn your house a few years ago. So you just take it off leaving just a few bricks and maybe one stud wall. Catastrophic

@WahineToa soery I may have misread the point you were making

@Cavviesarethebest i understand how many we are discussing, yes. I don’t understand their process for this. Do they just call out each law and vote???? In a year? Or have they been working on it and the majority retained laws will be incorporated? They’ve had since 2018, right. The article link didn’t give that much detail. I guess I can’t imagine them throwing out 2,400 laws without any discussion.

A sunset provision means if you do nothing, the law expires and doesn’t exist any more. So government departments will have to in 3yrs:

• examine every law and determine what to recommend Parliament keep
• write replacement laws containing what they want to keep
• lobby support from MPs for their draft law
• MPs will then debate and amend
• and hopefully vote the law with enough time to be put out there so that government, businesses, people can prepare for any changes in 2026 when the old law ceases to exist.
• And with enough time to update any regulations, policies and guidance based on these laws.

It is impossible to do this for 2,400 acts…plus all the thousands of regulations and implementation guidance that derive from these acts. It’s the epitome of a Herculean task.

They're going to destroy even more rights. And do away with the ECHR. They've already massively restricted Legal Aid and our right to protest.

How can anyone seriously believe that this is a good thing for UK citizens?🤦‍♀️

2026 when the old law ceases to exist.

Ok thank you for the explanation. So they think they can do this in 3 years? No work done yet. Is there a way of changing this to extend that? I keep writing to my MP 😂 she must hate me! I’ve never written to an MP before 2020!

Yes, any law Parliament passes, they can amend. So they can pass this law that says (probably in much longer legalese)
“the following laws will cease to be in effect on 31 Oct 2026:…list of laws”

So if we get to say April 2026 and everyone is oh shit! Parliament can amend the effective date of the sunset provision to a later date…say 31 Oct 2028. But they have to do this BEFORE the original effective date of 31 Oct 2026. If they fail to do so, the laws are legally dead and cannot be resurrected by a retroactive extension.

Actually they think it can be done by Dec 2023 and extensions must be applied for to get the 2026 date if I am not mistaken.

You can look in the dashboard what legislation is in scope

They can very easily say all Laws will roll over into uk law as they are

No need to scrap them

I guess we need that general election then. I don’t trust Labour, but that’s the only political defence we have.

If they fail to do so, the laws are legally dead and cannot be resurrected by a retroactive extension.

So it’s obviously important I would think to push for more time. I’ll wait a few months before I write another letter. The thing to clarify is what they intend to definitely do away with, they must have some idea.

They can very easily say all Laws will roll over into uk law as they are

Yes they can incorporate all of them. But it isn’t clear what the intention is. It’s important they’re our laws and need to be incorporated properly. But they’d say by now, pretty much all will be somewhat retained, if that were the intention.

Ahh - but these were laws developed by the EU over many many years which to Brexiteers must mean that they are either unnecessary, wrong, holding Britain back or just plain evil.

I despair when I think that there were 17 million people that actually voted for this. God help us.

Hold on, wasn't it part of the EU problem that there were just too many thousands of laws which were tying the country up in red tape? Not only that many of these regulations were ignored by much of europe but adhered to by the rule loving Brits.

2,400. And every one vital to the smooth running of the country? Not buying it.

Has anyone seen any actual legislation involved?
The ones I've seen are usually quite important and implement the directives for a good reason tbh.

Red tape?

And I thought they were laws which the elected British MEPs actively supported and helped vote through ?

Can you give an example of one of these laws which was tying the country up in red tape and how its removal will save us money?

Well, they should publish a list of the laws as part of public consultation I would think. If no public consultation, then at some point the list would be published on the Parliamentary Bills website when it’s being read and & debated on by the Commons.

You sound really expert

FFS - this level of ignorance around law, health & safety, food standards, working regulations is just depressing.

It's in the dashboard

That was the story that many fools swallowed.

I am sure there are plenty of laws and regulations we don't need. And plenty that we do.

I would worry that it's rushed and that we suddenly find regulations missing that are actually quite useful to us.