It urged the government to publish an exhaustive list of every piece of legislation being revoked under the sunset clause to ensure adequate scrutiny of what might be lost.
Under the bill, all EU-derived laws would be repealed at the close of this year unless specifically protected by the government. At stake are thousands of laws on food safety, building safety and fire prevention regulations, consumer protection, health and safety, holiday pay, maternity provision, environmental law and a wide variety of other assorted provisions. Critics of the bill have warned it would leave businesses in chaos.
The Law Society called on the government to extend the time line for reform and remove the 31 December 2023 deadline for reviewing retained law.
Spelling out the Law Society’s concerns, president Lubna Shuja said: ‘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.
‘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. This would not only unbalance the devolution settlements, it could also lead to legal confusion for businesses and consumers for decades to come.
‘Clause 7 takes the highly unusual step of giving powers to the Law Officers—the Attorney General, the Solicitor General and the Advocate General—to interfere in civil litigation after a case has concluded.
'This is contrary to the interests of justice and the rule of law.
‘Our members—solicitors—are particularly concerned workers could lose access to long-established rights that now form an integral part of Britain’s reputation as a fair society, such as holiday pay or protection against fire and rehire.’
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