UK businesses face a “storm” of flawed and poorly scrutinised laws, rushed through by government ministers with minimal parliamentary oversight after Brexit, top lawyers have warned.
Thousands of pieces of legislation must be amended or else they simply will not apply after 29 March 2019 when the UK leaves the EU. With Brexit taking up much of the government and parliament’s time, the task of trawling through laws to make these changes will be rushed and mistakes “undoubtedly” made, many of which won’t be noticed until they are in force, Hogan Lovells said.
It warned that it was looking increasingly likely that the process of redrafting legislation would take place within government departments and without appropriate consultation.
Analysis by the law firm outlines the sheer scale of the task facing the government. Some 19,000 pieces of EU legislation must be replicated, touching all aspects of life from health and safety to harbours and highways; from employment rights to exotic diseases.
A further 7,900 statutory instruments that implement EU laws in the UK are also affected, along with 759 bilateral treaties and 41 European agencies that must be replicated.
Charles Brasted, a partner at Hogan Lovells said businesses need to be more vigilant than ever before about mistakes that could affect them.
He warned that even minor changes to the wording of a provision could dramatically alter the application of rules. [...]
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Hogan Lovells analysis
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