Campaigners welcome UK government’s Reul Bill U-turn

UK ministers have scrapped plans that would see thousands of existing EU laws automatically removed by the end of 2023.

The Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill, championed by former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, stipulated that all existing EU legislation (amounting to more than 4,000 laws) would automatically be ‘sunsetted’ at the end of 2023, unless they were explicitly chosen to be saved.

The plan saw widespread backlash from both industry and environmental campaigners, who feared that an absence of regulation would cause uncertainty for business and lead to a watering down of standards, workers’ and consumers’ rights, and environmental protection. Air quality, water quality, food safety and chemical use were just some of the areas set to be left without firm legislation should the Bill have gone ahead.

In a written statement to parliament, Business and Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch said that the government is now tabling an amendment “which will replace the current sunset in the Bill with a list of retained EU laws that we intend to revoke under the Bill at the end of 2023.

"This provides certainty for business by making it clear which regulations will be removed from our statute book, instead of highlighting only the REUL that would be saved."

Badenoch also noted that fewer than 600 laws will be revoked under the Bill.

Campaigners welcome the move

Environmental campaigners have welcomed the move, saying that many important environmental protections will remain in place unless meaningfully reformed, instead of simply abandoned. However, concerns about attitudes towards environmental regulation remain.

In a statement, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, Craig Bennett, said: “We won’t be congratulating the government for its decision to stop doing something it should never have even thought about in the first place.  

“Ministers should never be given carte blanche to pick and choose which laws should be kept or binned without public consultation or scrutiny – that is fundamentally undemocratic. The uncertainty created by the Government over the Retained EU Law has caused huge problems for business, as well as organisations working to protect nature. Ministers must stop seeing environmental law as a burden because it helps stop more sewage entering our rivers and ensures food is safe to eat. Given the urgent need to address the nature and climate crisis, they should be strengthening protections, not ripping them apart.”

Further reading

• Kemi Badenoch’s statement to parliament