The Retained EU Law Bill would rock legal certainty in the UK and undermine the country’s status as an internationally competitive business environment, the Law Society said today as the bill enters its final stage in the House of Commons.

Society president Lubna Shuja said: 'The speed at which government proposes to review retained EU law is a recipe for bad law-making. As it stands the bill would entail bypassing parliamentary scrutiny and stakeholder consultation by giving ministers the power to independently revoke, restate, replace or update retained EU law.

'The net result of this unnecessary haste and over-reach is likely to be a period of uncertainty over the status of regulations that would affect consumers, business, government departments and the courts.'

The Society said that the bill’s clause seven takes the 'highly unusual step' of giving powers to the government’s law officers to interfere in civil litigation after a case has concluded.  

Shuja urged the government to extend the timeline for reform and remove the deadline of 31 December 2023 for reviewing retained law. The government should also publish an exhaustive list of every piece of legislation being revoked under the sunset clause. 

'If enacted as is, the bill could lead to different interpretations of the law by different courts and to the nations of the UK enforcing different regulations,' Shuja said. 'This would not only unbalance the devolution settlements, it could also lead to legal confusion for businesses and consumers for decades to come.'

 

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