A SCOTTISH minister has urged the UK Government to rethink its bill to overhaul EU legislation – and urged Holyrood to fight the proposed law.
The Scottish Government has lodged a Legislative Consent Memorandum urging Holyrood to withhold its consent for Westminster’s Retained EU Law (Reform and Revocation) Bill.
The bill seeks to revoke over 2400 pieces of EU legislation that were included in the UK statute book at the end of the Brexit transition period.
And now Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson has written to the UK Business Secretary Grant Shapps detailing the Scottish Government’s reasoning for recommending that Holyrood refuse consent.
Robertson’s letter has echoed the fundamental opposition of Scottish ministers to the legislation and stressed the concerns of bodies like RSPB Scotland and Greener UK, who say the bill will “derail urgent action to tackle the nature and climate crisis” and “rip up our most important nature protections in Scotland”.
The Scottish Government has committed to aligning regulation in Scotland alongside that of the EU and has asked that Westminster reconsider the bill and its impact on devolved governments.
The letter said: “This bill puts at risk the high standards people in Scotland have rightly come to expect from EU membership.
"The UK Government appears to want to row back 47 years of protections in a rush to impose a deregulated, race-to-the-bottom, society and economy. This is clearly at odds with the wishes of the vast majority of the people of Scotland who will be dismayed at the direction the UK Government is taking our country.”
It goes on to say the legislation “significantly undermines devolution”.
It continued: “By allowing UK Government ministers to act in policy areas that are devolved, and to do so without the consent of Scottish ministers or the Scottish Parliament, is in direct contradiction to the intent of the devolved settlement.
"Despite repeated assurances from UK ministers that the Sewel Convention would be respected, changes to the bill that would ensure respect for devolution have so far been resisted by UK Government.”
