Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill
On Wednesday 18th January, the House of Commons voted on the 3rd Reading of the Retained EU (Revocation and Reform) Bill. This is the last stage of the legislative process in the Commons before a Bill moves to the House of Lords.
During this session, Darren, and his Labour colleagues, supported various cross-party amendments to try and improve the Bill.
Unfortunately, the Government used its majority in the Commons to defeat amendments on workforce provisions and parliamentary oversight of the near 4000 individual pieces of EU law that need reinstating or replacing by the end of the year.
Please read Darren’s response to his constituents as below:
Dear Constituent,
Thank you for taking the time to write to me about the votes that took place in the House of Commons last week on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.
As you will be aware, the Bill makes it much easier for Government Ministers to revoke, change or replace EU legislation that was brought into UK domestic law as the UK left the EU, including by introducing a sunset clause that would automatically abolish most retained EU law at the end of 2023.
I, and my Labour Party colleagues, are completely opposed to this Bill. I recognise the need to establish the future status of laws carried over from our time in the European Union, but this is not a serious or appropriate way to do it.
Legislating to scrap an entire body of laws, covering a range of areas, from employment rights to consumer protection, to environmental standards and more, and which the Government has itself struggled to identify, will only cause confusion, uncertainty and the undermining of essential British rights.
The Government has provided no compelling reason why it cannot address retained EU law on an area-by-area basis, in the same way we make and change laws for everything else.
While I believe the Bill is fundamentally flawed, I supported efforts to at least try to improve it in some ways.
I supported an amendment, tabled by Stella Creasy and David Davis, that would have required the Government to publish a list of all the legislation that would be automatically revoked by the sunset clause and allow Parliament to amend it.
I also supported amendments to ensure the sunset clause would not apply to key hard-won employment rights like holiday pay and maternity leave which will all automatically be revoked if Ministers do nothing, that would have pushed back the sunset date to 2026 to end the cliff edge that is causing huge uncertainty for businesses and workers and would have ensured the sunset clause did not apply to laws that come within the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament.
Unfortunately, the Government opposed and defeated all of these amendments with the majority that they have in the Commons. The Bill now moves to the House of Lords for additional scrutiny. I hope that my colleagues in the Lords attempt to amend the Bill to improve it before it returns to the Commons later this year.
Please do let me know if you require any further support.
Yours sincerely,
DarrenDarren Jones MP
Member of Parliament for Bristol North West