A shift in approach? Assimilated law reform and the change of government
The Labour government's approach to reform of legacy EU laws is different from that of its Conservative predecessor. This briefing tracks changes in assimilated law in the first half of 2024 and looks at the future direction of reform following the General Election.
The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (the REUL Act) became law on 29 June 2023. It gave ministers powers to amend or revoke ‘retained EU laws’ (REUL) more easily.
REUL was established as a new body of EU derived domestic law following the UK’s exit from the EU. To ensure legal certainty and continuity, REUL kept many of the special features of EU law such as primacy over other inconsistent domestic laws and had to be interpreted in accordance with general principles of EU law and relevant EU Court of Justice case law.
From ‘retained EU law’ to ‘assimilated law’REUL ceased to exist as a special category of domestic law on 1 January 2024. Any REUL which remained on the UK statute became ‘assimilated law’, a new body of domestic law that is interpreted differently from REUL. Most of the powers in the REUL Act also apply to assimilated law.
The then Government said it intended to use the powers in the REUL Act to drive regulatory reform by removing “inefficient and bureaucratic REUL from the UK statute book” or reforming it to suit the best interests of the UK.
To enable Parliament to monitor the progress made in revoking and reforming EU-derived domestic laws, the REUL Act requires the Government to update its public database of REUL – now called the retained EU law/assimilated law dashboard – and to present a report every six months until June 2026, the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum.
The first statutory report (January 2024)A first REUL report covering the period from 29 June to 23 December 2023 was published on 22 January 2024. It indicated that in total more than 2,000 pieces of REUL had been revoked or reformed by the end of 2023. The updated dashboard listed 6,757 pieces of REUL/assimilated law.
The report set out a roadmap to revoke or reform half of all REUL/assimilated law by June 2026. You can read more about the first report in the Library’s briefing:
- The end of REUL? Progress in reforming retained EU law, 2 February 2024
Shortly after it was elected into office, the new Labour Government published a second report to Parliament on 23 July 2024 covering the revocation and reform of REUL and assimilated law undertaken by the previous Conservative Government between 24 December 2023 and 23 June 2024. It also published an updated dashboard which included further analysis by departments of the body of EU derived law as well as some corrections to the previous iteration.
The dashboard now lists 6,735 pieces of REUL/assimilated law, a slight decrease on the previous reporting period. Key points (corresponding figures for the previous reporting period are in brackets) include:
- 4,370 (4,524) pieces of REUL/assimilated law remain unchanged – nearly 65% (67%) of the total
- 798 (759) pieces of REUL/assimilated law have been amended – nearly 12% (11%) of the total
- 1,461 (1,369) pieces of REUL/assimilated law have been repealed – nearly 22% (20%) of the total
- 41 (39) pieces of REUL/assimilated law have been replaced – around 0.6% of the total
- 61 (62) pieces of REUL/assimilated law have expired – around 0.9%
Unlike its predecessor, the Labour Government has not set a quantitative target for further repeal and reform of assimilated law. It says reform will focus on creating a regulatory environment which is “pro-business” and supports “innovation, investment, and high-quality jobs”.
The Government’s legislative programme includes a Product Regulation and Metrology Bill which would give ministers powers to align domestic laws regulating the marketing and use of a wide range of products in the UK with those applicable in the EU and allow certain goods which meet EU product requirements to be placed on the UK market.
As EU product regulations continue to apply in Northern Ireland as part of the Brexit settlement to ensure there is no “hard” border on the island of Ireland, these powers could be used to reduce divergence and regulatory friction across the UK.