Rishi Sunak is considering de-prioritizing Jacob Rees Mogg’s controversial legislation to overturn 2,400 retained EU laws covering everything from holiday pay rights to environmental protection and aircraft safety.
The new prime minister has been told it will take 400 staff in the business department alone to review 300 pieces of legislation stemming from EU directives, decisions and rules over the past 50 years, the Financial Times reported.
According to a government website outlining the scope of the EU Retained Legislation (Repeal and Reform) Bill, a further 570 laws will need to be reviewed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs before the deadline at the end of 2023.
Under the proposed legislation, which received a second reading in the House of Commons this week, all laws, whether revised or not, would be withdrawn from government on 31 December 2023, placing a huge burden on the civil service.
A government dashboard outlining the number of retained EU laws that will disappear under the proposed legislation. Photo: Cabinet Office
Officials at the Ministry of Transport will have to review 424 laws, while the Ministry of Finance will have to redeploy staff to review 374 laws at a time when they are facing huge challenges due to the cost of living crisis.
Officials at HM Revenue and Customs will need to review 228 laws, while those at the Department for Work and Pensions will need to review 208.
According to the FT, some ministers said the civil service had exaggerated the time it took to review laws, but one said: “What a waste”.
Rees-Mogg, a stalwart of Boris Johnson, quit the front bench on Tuesday, but in a fiery speech in the House of Commons he said the bill was about “restoring parliamentary sovereignty” and helping to remove rules and regulations that allegedly put businesses under pressure.
Speculation was rife this week that Sunac would extend the sunset clause until 2026, in line with Rees-Mogg’s plan to wipe out all traces of EU law by the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum.
The option to delay the expiry clause is contained in the bill, giving the government a last-minute delay next year.
Abolishing EU laws was one of Sunak’s priorities during the Conservative leadership contest with Liz Truss this summer.
He promised to “keep Brexit safe” and put the laws “through the shredder”, starting to review or repeal 2,400 laws in his first 100 days as prime minister.
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But critics, including legal experts and the government lawyer who created the EU’s reserved law concept, say the timetable for reviewing 2,400 laws in just over a year is unrealistic.
The shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told the House that the bill was “not conducive to good laws” and that the sunset clause “puts a gun to Parliament’s forehead”.
Parliamentary officials issued a call for written evidence on Wednesday, giving advisory groups until November 8 to make submissions on the bill.
Opponents have also criticized the bill as anti-democratic because it gives ministers unprecedented powers to personally decide whether to save or repeal laws.
If a law has not been actively reviewed and preserved, it will automatically disappear.
Scottish National Party spokesman Brendan O’Hara called on Sunak to reject the bill, describing it as “an unwanted puppy that nobody would particularly want in the first place, that nobody cares about”, given as a gift by a man who is “jumped” out the door.
Downing Street has been approached for comment.
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