The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill is a proposed piece of legislation in the United Kingdom that would make significant changes to the body of retained EU law in UK domestic law.
The concept of retained EU law was created by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which took a snapshot of EU law as it applied to the UK at the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020 and provided for it to continue to apply in domestic law.
The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill would automatically revoke or sunset most retained EU law at the end of 2023, except for retained EU law that was domestic primary legislation. Ministers and devolved authorities could exempt most (but not all) retained EU law from the sunset, and UK ministers (but not devolved authorities) could delay the sunset until 23 June 2026 at the latest for specific descriptions of retained EU law.
The bill would also give ministers and devolved authorities powers to restate, reproduce, revoke, replace or update retained EU law and assimilated law by statutory instrument. It would repeal the principle of supremacy of retained EU law from UK law at the end of 2023, although its effects could be reproduced by statutory instrument in relation to specific pieces of retained EU law. The bill would also change the way that courts could depart from retained EU case law, and modify some types of retained EU law through secondary legislation.
The Bill has faced criticism from MPs and others, who have raised concerns about the impact of large-scale and rapid changes to the statute book as a consequence of the Bill and have highlighted a lack of clarity about what retained EU law the government intends to keep, particularly in the areas of employment, environmental and consumer protections. However, the only amendments made to the Bill in the House of Commons were government amendments to clarify the Bill’s drafting.
You can learn more about this topic with our EU Law and Public Law notes.
