It is in addition to 2,400 laws ranging from environmental protection to workers’ rights and passenger compensation rules already identified by the former Brexit business and opportunity secretary. The discovery adds further detail to an admission that a government dashboard listing the laws was “incomplete”. It came in response to a series of questions from Labor MP Stella Creasy, who asked about the civil service’s ability to advise ministers on which laws should be kept, amended or repealed in the EU Bill (Repeal and reform). She was told the equivalent of just three full-time staff were working on the 137 Acts at the Department of Health and Social Care, while 77 full-time staff at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) were working on the bill. According to the Financial Times, it emerged that 1,400 pieces of EU legislation, many of which had long been forgotten, had been found by researchers at the National Archives. A BEIS spokesman said: “The process of identifying and recording EU-sourced legislation is an ongoing process and an essential exercise in speeding up regulatory reform and reclaiming the UK statute book. The government’s track record of legislation will improve over time as more EU legislation is repealed, replaced or found to be retained.’ The bill is at committee stage in parliament and has been championed by Rees-Mogg and his allies as an opportunity to wipe out any vestiges of EU law on domestic statute books. Sir Stephen Laws, the first parliamentary adviser from 2006-12 and a fellow at right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange, told the committee the bill was a positive move as EU law was “imprecise” and used to harmonize laws across the block. It would also remove the supremacy of EU law. Legal experts, including former Brexit lawyer Eleonor Duhs, criticized the bill as “undemocratic” for the unprecedented powers it gives ministers to decide which laws to save or scrap. They will give evidence on the bill to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, as will environmental groups, the trade union Unison and Sir Jonathan Jones KC, the government’s former chief solicitor. Others testifying include Brexit champion Martin Howe KC; If the proposed laws are enacted, all EU law, unless otherwise amended, will be scrapped on December 31 next year under a sunset clause. The list of laws targeted by the government include bans on animal testing for cosmetics, passenger compensation rights for those who delay flights, equal pay for men and women and pension rights for widows of same-sex marriages. Government dashboard showing sector-by-sector EU legislation retained. Photo: Office Dashboard October 2022 The environment, agriculture and food safety are governed by 570 laws deriving from EU directives, rules and decisions, with more than 400 laws governing transport and more than 200 covering work and pensions. Under the proposed laws, the government has the power to simply deactivate the laws on 31 December 2023 without consulting the public or parliament, unless they have been actively saved by a minister.
