Boris Johnson 's government will use the Queen 's Speech during the state opening of parliament tomorrow to announce a new " Brexit Freedoms" bill brought forward to mark the second anniversary of the vote to leave the EU. It comes after disappointing Conservative local election results that saw them lose close to five hundred councillors and control of eleven councils.
The government has said that the bill will make it easier to update or remove any "retained EU Law", designed to be a bridging measure after Brexit. In statement, the Prime Minister said: "Our new Brexit Freedoms Bill will end the special status of EU law in our legal framework and ensure that we can more easily amend or remove outdated EU law in future."
Concerns have been expressed that the bill could be used to weaken parliamentary scrutiny. Hannah White with the Institute for Government pointed out on their blog that "these were not laws simply imposed on the UK by the EU. They had been discussed – and in many cases initiated by UK ministers working with their EU counterparts", going on to say, "It is important that any political decision to repeal or change these laws (in anything other than a limited and technical way) receives proper parliamentary scrutiny in the same way as any other policy proposal would."
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What is the Brexit Freedoms Bill and what could change?
Retained EU Law is a new category of UK law, which was initially created to avoid any gaps during the Brexit process. The Brexit Freedoms Bill is designed to provide a fast-track procedure for changing retained EU law and downgrade the retained EU law's status (which currently takes precedence in any conflicts).
However, it is still unclear which laws will be changed. The Government said: "Officials across government are currently reviewing all EU retained laws to determine if they are beneficial to the UK. It is right that people know how much EU-derived law there is and how much progress government is making to reform it, so the government will make this catalogue public in due course."
However, alongside the Brexit Freedoms Bill announcement, another policy document has been released designed to set out how the government plans to use the new freedoms in different sectors like artificial intelligence, data and AI, and business and industry.
The Government will also attempt "to cut £1bn of red tape for businesses and improve regulation", though many organisations have expressed concerns about the impact that Brexit could have on worker's rights and employment law. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) warned in March of last year that the UK was at risk of falling behind the EU on worker's rights.
