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Retained EU Law (Revocation And Reform) Act 2023

Contents

Overview of the Act

  1. The purpose of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (the Act) is to enable the amendment of retained EU law (REUL) and to remove the special features it has in the UK legal system. These reforms were announced in the Queen’s speech in May 2022.
  2. The Act gives effect to policies that were set out in the Benefits of Brexit Report 1 published on gov.uk in January 2022 and the Government's announcement of the review into the substance and status of REUL in September 2021.
  3. To achieve this, the Act:
    • Revokes 587 instruments of REUL listed in Schedule 1 to the Act and assimilates all REUL remaining on the statute book by the end of 2023;
    • Repeals the principle of supremacy of EU law from UK law by the end of 2023;
    • Facilitates domestic courts departing from retained case law;
    • Provides a mechanism for UK Government law officers and law officers in the devolved administrations to intervene in cases regarding retained case law, or to refer them to an appeal court, where relevant;
    • Repeals directly effective EU law rights and obligations in UK law by the end of 2023;
    • Abolishes general principles of EU law in UK law by the end of 2023;
    • Establishes a new priority rule requiring retained direct EU legislation (RDEUL) to be interpreted and applied consistently with domestic legislation;
    • Downgrades the status of RDEUL for the purpose of amending it more easily;
    • Creates a suite of powers that allow REUL to be revoked or replaced, restated or updated and removed or reformed so as not to increase the regulatory burden in relation to a particular subject area.
    • Imposes a duty to update the retained EU law dashboard;
    • Imposes a duty to periodically report to Parliament on retained EU law reforms and set out plans for further reform.
  4. The Act also repeals the Business Impact Target (BIT) contained in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015. This is an outcome of the Benefits of Brexit Report published by the Government in January 2022, in response to the ‘Reforming Better Regulation Framework’ consultation.
  5. The Act contains 23 sections and 5 Schedules, addressing a range of regulatory and constitutional issues and changes. The Act amends the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EUWA) and makes minor and consequential amendments to some other Acts.

1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-benefits-of-brexit

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