Ministers working with the National Archives have found the extra legal text, which brings the overall body of retained EU law on the UK statute book to 3,800 laws, up from 2,400. Thousands of EU laws were transferred into UK law, often with only minor changes, when Brexit came into force at 11pm on 31 December. The move prevented legal loopholes in a wide range of post-Brexit regulations.
The government wants to have revised or repealed all these laws by the end of 2023. But officials have warned it will be a bureaucratic nightmare because each will require legal advice and consultations with businesses and other groups, the Financial Times reported. Grant Shapps, the Business Secretary, is keen to slow down the review because hundreds of extra staff will be needed, according to the FT.

Fears that Sunak may renege on his promise

Rishi Sunak has vowed to beat 2,400 laws in this year’s leadership contest against Liz Truss. However, Mr Sunak has abandoned his promise to complete the exercise within 100 days and Brexiteers are leery that he may abandon the idea altogether. On Monday, Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s Brexit negotiator, warned the UK to abandon plans for a firefight with EU regulations after Brexit or face new trade barriers for British goods. It warned that it would pile up “even greater costs” on British businesses at a time of “severe financial pressures” caused by rising energy and food prices. “Further divergences will have even greater costs and further deepen barriers to trade between the EU and the UK,” he said in a speech in London. The idea of ​​repealing or improving EU succession law was first mooted as a way to highlight the ‘Brexit opportunities’ and was pioneered by Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Ministers could ask to extend the deadline for the review to 2026 under legislation drawn up by the former business secretary, who was sacked by Mr Sunak.

Brexiteers ‘very unhappy’

The bill is at the committee stage in the House of Commons and may be amended. Theresa Villiers, Northern Ireland’s former environment and environment minister, told the Guardian there were so many laws that even the 2026 deadline would be very difficult to meet. David Jones, the MP and former chairman of the Brexiteer European Research Group, told the FT he would be “very unhappy” at any delay. In 2021, MPs including former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith published a report identifying some legacy EU laws in need of change. The Task Force on Innovation, Development and Regulatory Reform called for the lifting of the EU’s effective ban on genetically modified crops, a review of data protection rules and regulations on financial services and artificial intelligence. In September that year, the government said it would change legacy EU laws to allow the crown seal to return to pint glasses and imperial measures to be used by traders. But critics pointed out that the existing laws did not prevent the use of the crown seal or imperial measures and merely required that they not be given the same prominence as the EU mark or metric measurements.

Law database

The government has published a database of retained EU law, which now appears to have underestimated the total number of legal acts from Brussels after 47 years of EU membership. The database reports that there are 2,417 retained EU acts. 2,006 of these remain unchanged and 182 have been amended. 196 have been abolished and only 33 replaced. Most laws (570) relate to the environment, agriculture and food safety and fall under Defra’s remit. A total of 424 are under the Ministry of Transport and 374, including post-financial crisis EU regulation, under the Ministry of Finance.
Some 318 rules are overseen by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with 228 related to customs and another 208 to work and pensions. Among the legacy rules are laws on the energy efficiency labeling of washing machines, harmonized standards for railway products, conditions for importing and selling irradiated food, rules on pensions and statutory maternity pay, and regulations on “dangerous substances and explosive atmospheres” in the workplace. Other rules include oil and gas drilling safety regulations, port security, capital gains tax, rules making it illegal for people under 14 not to wear an adult seat belt in a car, and regulations on sulfur emissions from certain fuels used in shipping . There are also rules guaranteeing disabled access to passenger aircraft, ensuring drinking water is clean and hygienic, regulations meaning producers must pay a share of the cost of recycling their packaging and a UK version of the EU Directive for sewage sludge. EU laws on the control of foreign species in aquaculture, African horse sickness, the sale of seal products, human medicines and credit rating agencies and financial groups are also to be reviewed by British officials. Other regulations include common EU rules on technical requirements for electronic toll systems, laws making it illegal to refill a faulty vehicle air conditioning system, regulations to minimize noise pollution at airports, minimum rest periods for truck drivers and health and safety rules to protect seafarers from electromagnetic fields in ships. British officials will also have to scrutinize EU rules for making silage to prevent water pollution, recycling rules for used batteries, regulations defining what constitutes a “fishing vessel” and a multi-year plan for red tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. Wine labeling rules and standards, exotic diseases in pigs, measures to recover the European eel and rules on the bycatch of whales, dolphins and seals during fisheries should also come under the microscope. British goat farmers will be interested to know whether EU rules on the labeling and traceability of horned animals will survive the scrutiny of Britain’s army of bureaucrats carrying the legal books. So will importers of Turkish seafood, where live bivalve molluscs are subject to additional EU safeguards, which have been carried over into UK wholesale legislation. Officials should also look at the list of non-EU countries authorized to supply the UK with edible insects and snails, as well as rules forcing digital TV broadcasters to do so in widescreen format, shoe labeling and vacation timeshares. A UK Government spokesman said: “The Government is committed to reaping the full benefits of Brexit, which is why we are moving forward with the EU Retained Law Bill, which will end the special legal status of all retained law of the EU and will enable us to ensure that our laws and regulations better meet the needs of the country. “The process of identifying and recording EU-sourced legislation is an ongoing process and an essential exercise in accelerating 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.’