The government has announced a major climbdown over its Brexit plans to remove EU laws from British statue books by the end of the year.
The EU Retained Law Bill currently going through parliament was due to automatically delete any European legislation at the end of 2023 – unless it was explicitly chosen to be saved.
But ministers on Wednesday quietly confirmed that they were gutting the bill’s “sunset clause” and that the mass deletion would not go ahead as planned.
Now, only EU laws specifically chosen to be repealed will be scrapped – with the rest automatically becoming UK law at the end of the year.
The change, confirmed by business secretary Kemi Badenoch in a written ministerial statement, turns the logic of the bill on its head and is likely to upset hardcore Brexiteers, who were keen to expunge the influence of Brussels from the statue books.
Opposition parties described the change as a “humiliating U-turn” and the remaining bill as a “sinking ship”, while businesses said the move was a “huge sigh of relief”.
There had been concern that workers’ rights and environmental rules might be among those set to be canned by the bill – either intentionally or by accident.
Businesses also complained that it created significant uncertainty.
Civil servants had been racing against time to go through rules and decide whether they needed saving – and critics had warned that the rushed process could see important rules accidentally deleted.
Ms Badenoch said in a written statement published on Wednesday afternoon that said she was proposing “a new approach” which would “replace the current sunset in the Bill with a list of the retained EU laws that we intend to revoke under the Bill at the end of 2023”.
“This provides certainty for business by making it clear which regulations will be removed from our statue book, instead of highlighting only the [EU law] that would be saved,” she said.
“We will retain the vitally important powers in the Bill that allow us to continue to amend EU laws, so more complex regulation can still be revoked or reformed after proper assessment and consultation.”
Ms Badenoch says the number of laws intended to be revoked by ministers at the end of 2023 is around 600 out of 4,000 on the books.
Officials confirmed on Wednesday that they were planning to consult on changes to the EU’s working time directive, including removing the requirement for companies to keep working time records.
Commenting on the governemnt’s EU retained law bill U-turn, Jonathan Reynolds, Labour’s shadow business secretary, said his party had “long maintained this is a disastrous piece of legislation dreamt up by an out of touch government with no thought for how it would impact real people and real businesses”.
He described the original plan as “a chaotic Conservative cliff edge that would have plunged business into more uncertainty at the worst possible time”.
Jenny Chapman, Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister, described the policy change as a “humiliating u-turn from a weak and divided government with no clue how to grow our economy, protect workers, support business or build a better Britain outside the EU”.
She added: “After wasting months of parliamentary time, the Tories have conceded that this universally unpopular bill will damage the economy, at a time when businesses and families are already struggling with the Tory cost of living crisis. They are now trying to adopt some of Labour’s amendments to try and rescue this sinking ship of a bill.
“We will continue to fight to ensure this legislation does not water down hard won workers’ rights, undermine business confidence, or give ministers unaccountable powers they cannot be trusted with.”
Jane Gratton, head of people policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said it was welcome that the government had listened to criticism and was withdrawing the sunset clause.
“Firms will breathe a huge sigh of relief that steps are being taken to reduce the cumulative burden of red-tape that have placed a stranglehold on their ambition and ramped up cost,” she said.
“But they have also been worried about the headlong rush towards the sudden removal of vast swathes of legislation overnight, that could make it harder to compete internationally.
“It is welcome that Government has listened, and the Bill will no longer apply a blanket sunset clause in this way, with the real risk of unintended but negative consequences.”
Ms Gratton said the business group would “carefully scrutinise the series of measures which are due to be amended or revoked through the revised Bill”.
The changes announced by Ms Badenoch will be introduced through a government amendment to the bill.
She said that the original design of the bill meant that civil servants were focused on which laws should be saved rather than “prioritising meaningful reform”.
The bill was introduced by Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was business secretary under former prime minister Liz Truss.