Around 600 EU laws will be scrapped in the UK by the end of the year following Brexit.
When the UK left the EU on January 31, 2020, we retained several EU laws to ensure continuity and stability.
But the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill allows ministers to amend, reform or revoke retained EU law.
Now, ministers have revealed which 600 laws will be repealed by the end of 2023.
What is the Retained EU Law Bill?
The Government has already revoked or reformed more than 1,000 EU laws since we left the EU. The Financial Services and Markets Bill and the Procurement Bill will revoke around a further 500 pieces of retained EU law.
This week, the Department for Business and Trade has published a list of 600 EU laws that are set to be scrapped by December 31, 2023.
Around 4,000 bills were set to be scrapped initially, but Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch revealed last week that only 600 would be repealed.
This decision has angered Brexiteers, who wanted to see an increased number of EU bills revoked. It was, however, welcomed by critics, who argued that important legislation could have been scrapped.
Which EU laws will be scrapped in the UK this year?
Around 600 laws will be scrapped by the end of the year, including the following:
The Government will remove some items relating to air pollution, claiming that it “does nothing to improve the quality of the air we breathe”.
Ministers will also remove laws relating to the Port Services Regulations because it is “contrary to the needs and requirements of the UK”.
Several repealed laws relate to fisheries, including sustainable fisheries agreements, and fish populations, according to the Guardian.
Several repealed laws relate to biocidal products like disinfectants and insect repellants.
The UK will formally repeal a law that gave the country access to an EU-wide criminal database called Ecris.
A law that will be repealed relates to measures mitigating money laundering and terrorist financing risks in third countries.
The UK will repeal rules relating to flood risk regulations, claiming that they’ve either been superseded by or are a duplicate of UK law.
