The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill—the Repeal Bill that will transpose massive amounts of EU legislation into UK law-raises ‘important constitutional questions’, lawyers have warned.
The Bill, which will transpose massive amounts of EU legislation into UK law, will create legal controversy as well as political drama on its way through the House of Commons.
Andrew Langdon QC, Chairman of the Bar Council, said the Bill ‘throws up some important constitutional questions, such as the extent to which government ministers should be able to re-shape the law without scrutiny by Parliament.’ The Bill gives government ministers power to amend Bills using secondary legislation in some circumstances, for example, where EU laws and Directives relate to the powers of EU agencies which will no longer have authority in the UK.
Langdon said: ‘Where ministers are given the power to make secondary legislation, this should be limited to technical amendments and should not be used to make substantive changes in policy, which should be made only by primary legislation, subject to full parliamentary scrutiny.’ However, he added: ‘The government appears to have taken on board the concerns raised by the Bar Council and others.
Following a White Paper earlier this year, s 7 of the Bill provides a more detailed criteria for the ways in which ministers will be able to use their law-making powers. Ministers may not, for example, use secondary legislation to create a criminal offence or to increase taxation.’
The Bill converts existing laws derived from the EU into domestic, and gives the UK two years after Brexit to correct any deficiencies.
Lucy Fergusson, Linklaters partner, said: ‘As expected, the Repeal Bill will keep most EU law, but rebooted and turned into UK law. ‘We support this as an objective because, whatever happens in the EU, businesses want certainty and they want to know that the rules and regulations that apply to them in the UK won’t suddenly change the day after Brexit.’
