The surprising consequences of the Brexit freedom bill

Thousands of pieces of European Union law will lapse at the end of the year unless they are repealed or renewed by the government.

Under the Retained EU Law Bill – also known as the Brexit freedom bill – introduced during Liz Truss’s short tenure as prime minister, the government has committed to repealing or replacing around 4,000 pieces of legislation tied to the UK’s membership of the EU, many to do with employment and environmental laws.

It is a mammoth task with a tight deadline – under the timeline set by ministers, the government has until the end of 2023 to decide which laws they want to either scrap, retain or replace. Unless restated or replaced by the end of December, many of these EU laws will automatically lapse, a process known as “sunsetting”.

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Why are they doing it now?

Sir Jonathan Jones, the former head of the government legal department, said the government had left itself a “needlessly short space of time to review such a vast quantity of legislation”, calling it a “terrible way to make law”, said PoliticsHome.

Three government departments – the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for Transport and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – are expected to extend the deadline until 2026, said The Times. The government, however, has so far said it has no plans to extend the deadline, but a senior government source told the paper that it was “inevitable” the 2023 deadline would have to be scrapped.

One reason for the original deadline of the end of this year is political, said The Times. Any delay “is likely to anger Eurosceptic Tory MPs, who believe that the legislation is critical in showing that the government is delivering on the benefits of Brexit”, the paper said.

Employment laws

Several key employment laws could be impacted or disappear at midnight on 31 December, unless the government replaces or restates the law, or extends the deadline it has set itself.

Legal news site Lexology has identified several laws that could be affected. The average weekly working limit of 48 hours, introduced under the Working Time Regulations 1998, could be affected and either “lifted or amended”, although it noted the impact of this being done could be “minimal” given that many employees opt out of this limit when starting their jobs.

Rules over the automatic transfer of employees following the acquisition or merger of a company – also known as TUPE – could also change, said the legal site. In particular, “current restrictions on the ability to change the terms and conditions of transferred employees can impede or undermine the post-acquisition integration of businesses”. It added that there was also “considerable uncertainty” around pay and holiday entitlement.

Environmental laws

Concerns have been raised over what the bill could mean for environmental protections. Experts are “especially concerned that controls on nitrogen dioxide, one of the most harmful types of air pollution, could be dismantled”, said The Times.

There are even more “hard-won protections and safeguards in environmental law” that are at risk of being lost “in one fell swoop”, said Prospect, “either because there is a conscious unilateral decision to deregulate, or by accident in the bonfire of legislation that is lit by the bill”.

Water UK, which represents water companies, has said that up to 80% of water legislation comes from the UK’s membership of the EU, meaning that legal protections for rivers, seas and drinking water could be jeopardised. A “similar” number of animal welfare laws are also derived from EU-era legislation, said the magazine.

Science funding

Rishi Sunak hopes that the scrapping of EU regulations will be able to unleash an an “£80 billion science funding boom”, said The Telegraph. The government wants to “seize” the opportunity offered by mooted regulation reforms in the City to “unlock huge reserves of cash” that will be used for new research and development projects across the UK.

It is part of government plans to turn the UK into a “science superpower” now that it has left the EU, said the paper. This comes as Sunak is said to be “seriously considering” an alternative to Horizon, the EU’s science innovation programme.

Pre-packaged alcohol

In a move that would have “delighted” former prime minister Winston Churchill, according to the Daily Express, champagne could once again be sold in a pint bottle.

The government is considering reversing EU legislation that abolished imperial measurements, including the pint bottle for champagne, according to Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake. In a written response to former minister Tim Loughton, Hollinrake stated that the government is reviewing EU-derived laws, including the sale of pre-packed alcohol in specific quantities.

But industry experts have noted that reintroducing pint bottles for champagne would be a significant logistical challenge, with any new bottles unlikely to hit shelves until at least 2027 “because of the time it takes for the fizz to age sufficiently”, reported the Express.