Only around 600 out of 4,000-plus Brussels-derived rules will be scrapped by end of year
More than 2,500 EU-derived regulations are set to remain on the UK statute book beyond the end of this year, the government has announced, in a climbdown welcomed by business groups but criticised by Tory Brexiters. Kemi Badenoch, the UK trade secretary, confirmed that the “sunset” clause in the Retained EU Law Bill, which mandated that all the estimated 4,800-EU laws in force in Britain after Brexit must be reviewed or repealed by the end of December, would be shelved.
Instead, she announced that only “around 600” EU regulations would be scrapped under the Bill. She said that because officials were identifying a “growing volume” of EU laws, the sunset clause meant that the government had become more focused on “reducing legal risk by preserving EU laws than prioritising meaningful reform”.
During the Conservative leadership contest in August, Rishi Sunak’s team vowed to review or repeal “all” post-Brexit EU laws within his first 100 days as prime minister. At the time, UK officials had identified 2,400 regulations, but since then the number has almost doubled. A list of the approximately 600 laws being revoked is expected to be published next week.
Around 1,000 EU regulations have already been repealed, and some 500 others will be removed via the Financial Services and Markets Bill and the Procurement Bill, both of which are currently going through parliament, Badenoch said in a statement to MPs. She signalled that more laws could be revoked in future: “We will retain the vitally important powers in the Bill that allow us to continue to amend EU laws, so more complex regulation can still be revoked or reformed after proper assessment and consultation.”..
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