Retained EU Law (REUL) parliamentary report June 2023 to December 2023: executive summary (HTML version)
Published 22 January 2024
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This executive summary duplicates that in the PDF version of the Retained EU Law (REUL) parliamentary report June 2023 to December 2023 report.
Executive Summary
The REUL Bill received Royal Assent on 29 June 2023. Section 17 of the Act requires the Secretary of State to report to Parliament on REUL at 6-monthly intervals until June 23 2026. The purpose of this report is to set out the progress that has been made in revoking and reforming REUL during the period since the Act was passed and to set out plans to revoke and reform REUL in subsequent reporting periods.
The reform of REUL is part of the government’s wider ambitions for regulatory reform. The report begins by setting out the 3 pillars of the Smarter Regulation programme and explaining how REUL reform fits into this wider programme.
The 3 pillars of Smarter Regulation are: minimising the regulatory burden and future proofing the UK’s regulations; making regulation the last resort; and ensuring a well-functioning landscape of regulators.
The report then summarises the data on the updated REUL Dashboard. The Dashboard provides the public with information on the amount of REUL and where it sits across departments. It also provides data on the progress government is making in accelerating REUL reform. Since the previous update to the Dashboard over 1,000 REUL instruments have been either revoked or reformed, meaning that over 2,000 instruments have already been revoked or reformed in total.
Next, the report sets out the progress made in revoking and reforming REUL in the current reporting period, building on the nearly 600 pieces of REUL revoked by the REUL Act itself. This includes revocations and reforms using the powers contained within the REUL Act. Twenty six SIs have been laid since June, including important reforms to wine and employment regulations which will benefit business. The powers have also been used to remove over 100 further instruments from the statute book by SI. Additional revocations and reforms of REUL have been made by or under other primary legislation. For example, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 and the Procurement Act 2023 will revoke some 600 pieces of REUL.
The report then sets out the government’s immediate plans. In 2024 the government will revoke or reform approximately 500 instruments. For example, the Department of Health and Social Care is proposing reforms to UK clinical trials legislation, which will assist growth, and both DfT and Defra have suites of reform planned which will support UK businesses.
Looking further forward, this Report provides a roadmap for government’s ambitious proposals to revoke and reform further REUL. The government is on track to reform or revoke over half of the entire stock of REUL accrued in the more than 40 years that the UK was a member of the EU by June 2026.
Future reports will track the government’s progress in implementing these plans and meeting these ambitions.
Finally, the report details actions which have been taken to preserve so-called “section 4 rights” as well as future plans for those rights.