‘Great Repeal Bill will bring power home to the people’
Post-Brexit the UK Parliament will be sovereign again, according to Brexit Secretary David Davis. But where will the legal powers rest? And what will it mean for the people of Wales? David Williamson reports
THE UK government has unveiled its plans to ensure chaos does not erupt on the day the country leaves the European Union.
The intention is to secure “maximum certainty” and avoid a legal black hole.
Theresa May states in the new White Paper: “The same rules and laws will apply on the day after exit as on the day before. It will then be for democratically elected representatives in the UK to decide on any changes to that law, after full scrutiny and proper debate.”
But the scene is set for intense debate among ministers in Westminster and Cardiff about where powers should rest when the UK cuts the cord with Brussels. Why is the legislation called the Great Repeal Bill?
It will repeal the European Communities Act (ECA) that enabled the UK to join the European Economic Community back in 1973.
Eurosceptics will be thrilled to see the end of the ECA. It established that European law applied in the UK or, as the White Paper puts it, was “supreme over UK law”.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said: “The UK Parliament will unquestionably be sovereign again. Our courts will be the ultimate arbiters of our laws.” If we are leaving the EU, why does the UK government want to put its regulations on to Britain’s statute book?
Ministers do not want the UK to crash out of the EU into chaos, but
CIVIL SERVICE UNDER STRESS
The Great Repeal Bill, which will allow more than 12,000 Brussels regulations to be incorporated into UK law on Brexit day, is only one part of a huge bureaucratic exercise which will see powers on everything from agriculture to aviation transferred to Westminster or the devolved administrations, new trading arrangements drawn up for hundreds of industrial sectors, dozens of new regulatory bodies established and a string of bills passed on issues including immigration and customs.
But the tsunami of legislative rather to have a soft landing.
Keeping the bulk of EU legislation in place for the time being, the UK government hopes, will allow “businesses to continue operating knowing the rules have not changed significantly overnight, and provides fairness to individuals, whose rights and obligations will not be subject to sudden change”. Will Brexit really mean Brexit if we stick to EU rules once we’ve left the club?
This isn’t about keeping EU laws in activity is coming at a time when the civil service is at its lowest staffing levels since the Second World War, leading to warnings that the government will have to put other parts of its agenda on hold.
Simply to make technical amendments to EU regulations to make them fit into the British lawbook – for example, by removing references to EU bodies which the UK will no longer be a member of – will require up to 1,000 additional statutory instruments, almost as many as Parliament passes in a typical year. place for all time, but keeping stability.
The idea is that MPs and AMs will then be able to “amend, repeal or improve any piece of EU law (once it has been brought into UK law)”. But won’t most EU laws no longer be relevant to the UK if we are no longer part of EU institutions? This is where it gets controversial. The Great Repeal Bill will create powers to “enable corrections to be made to the laws that would otherwise no longer operate appropriately once we have left the EU”.
Up to 1,000 changes may need to be made and there are concerns this secondary legislation will not get the necessary parliamentary scrutiny.
Mr Davis has attempted to calm objections, saying that any powers will be “time limited” and “Parliament will need to be satisfied that the procedures are appropriate”.
But former Shadow Welsh Secretary and Pontypridd MP Owen Smith said: “It is essential that the government keep their promise of fully protecting the workers’, consumers’ and environmental rights we currently enjoy through our membership of the EU. Ministers must not be allowed to use the medieval powers they have bestowed on themselves to sign our rights away in the backrooms of Whitehall.
“This government are taking every opportunity they can find to write themselves a blank cheque for hard Brexit. Today’s executive power-grab only highlights why it is so important that our elected representatives in Parliament are given a meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal.” Will the Welsh Government get new powers?
Mr Davis says the “outcome of this process will be a significant increase in the decision-making power of each devolved administration”.
But there is huge potential for fierce rows between the UK government and the devolved administrations.
Just as EU countries agree to abide by common rules to ensure the single market works effectively, new