Meet the South West England Committee – Informal debate

Delivered by Lesley Damrel - Tuesday 17 January 2023

About the Event

Over the nearly 50 years of its membership of the European Union, the UK was subject to a wide range of European laws agreed between the EU member states including the UK.

Those laws cover a wide range of things including competition rules, workers’ rights, environmental protection and food standards. Having a common set of laws underpinned fair competition within the European Single Market and drove up standards across the EU.

If the UK had simply let all this law lapse when it left the EU the result would have been chaos, with massive uncertainty for businesses and consumers. Therefore in 2018, the UK Parliament passed the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 which in effect ‘copied’ almost all EU law and ‘pasted’ it into UK law. The plan was for the laws to continue in practice until they were changed by domestic legislation (either by the UK’s four parliaments – including the Scottish Parliament and Westminster – or by one of the UK’s governments using its powers to make regulations or orders.)

This body of law – thousands of pieces of legislation – is now known as “retained EU law” (REUL).

The Bill could mean the full range of health and safety regulations will automatically be repealed on 31 December 2023, unless ministers make specific decisions to retain them.

The Bill can be viewed by following this link - [The Retained EU Law https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-retained-eu-law-revocation-and-reform-bill-2022 - go to the dashboard and search the DWP section where the Health and Safety legislation is located.

If you require a version with subtitles please contact tommy.boonham-payne@aps.org.uk.