˿

Skip to main content
Loading…

Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

Filter your results Hide all filters

Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 7 July 2025
Select which types of business to include


Select level of detail in results

Displaying 2221 contributions

|

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Meeting date: 13 December 2022

Stuart McMillan

I will bring in Bill Kidd, who has a question about clause 16.

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Meeting date: 13 December 2022

Stuart McMillan

Sir Jonathan, you mentioned the word litigation. Paul Sweeney’s question was about clause 8, but it made me think about the bill as a whole.

The word “uncertainty” has been used a lot by witnesses today, about what may or may not happen. Do witnesses expect litigation to take place because of the lack of clarity that is caused by the number of regulations and the volume of legislation that will be covered by the bill? There are 2,400 pieces of retained EU legislation and potentially another 1,400—possibly up to 5,000. I dare say that, at some point in the future, some organisations will operate and take decisions on the basis of what they think is the law, but potentially, because of the sunset clause, the initial law might not exist any more, because it will have fallen off the statute book. Do you expect an increase in litigation as a consequence of this legislation from the UK Government?

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Meeting date: 13 December 2022

Stuart McMillan

The final area of questioning is on the issue of Henry VIII powers, which tend to bring some controversy any time they are spoken about.

Prior to the publication of the bill, the Public Law Project, in written evidence to the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee’s inquiry into retained EU law, stated:

“A broad Henry VIII power for the UK Executive to make law in any area of former EU competence would be constitutionally inappropriate.”

The Scottish Parliament’s Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, in its recent report titled “The Impact of Brexit on Devolution”, stated:

“The Committee’s view is that the extent of UK Ministers’ new delegated powers in devolved areas amounts to a significant constitutional change. We have considerable concerns that this has happened and is continuing to happen on an ad hoc and iterative basis without any overarching consideration of the impact on how devolution works.”

Do the witnesses have any comment about the Henry VIII nature of many of the powers contained in the bill?

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Meeting date: 13 December 2022

Stuart McMillan

Colleagues have no further questions. Do panel members have anything to put on the record that they have not already highlighted?

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Instrument subject to Affirmative Procedure

Meeting date: 13 December 2022

Stuart McMillan

Under agenda item 3, we are considering an instrument on which no points have been raised.

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Instrument subject to Negative Procedure

Meeting date: 13 December 2022

Stuart McMillan

Under agenda item 4, we are considering an instrument on which no points have been raised.

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Meeting date: 13 December 2022

Stuart McMillan

Before I bring in the other witnesses, I will make a point regarding your first category. Certainly, it could be quite time consuming to pull something together in order to bring in emergency legislation. On the issue of capacity, which was raised earlier, as I asked Sir Jonathan, does the civil service actually have the capacity to look at all the legislation that is currently there? Dr Tucker indicated that officials would have to engage with all the legislation that is there. Given the short time that we have, there is a possibility that not every piece of legislation will be engaged with in order to make an active decision before a sunsetting happens or does not happen on each particular piece of legislation. I suggest that, given the capacity issue and the short timescale—notwithstanding the potential to extend the sunsetting—litigation could be a regular occurrence if businesses or trade sectors ended up being caught in something that was not fully considered beforehand.

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Meeting date: 13 December 2022

Stuart McMillan

No problem.

I thank Sir Jonathan Jones, Dr Adam Tucker and Morag Ross KC for their extremely helpful evidence. The committee may follow up by letter any additional questions that stem from the meeting.

I suspend the meeting briefly to allow Morag Ross to leave the room and the other witnesses to leave BlueJeans.

11:17 Meeting suspended.  

11:20&Բ;&Բ;ܳԲ—&Բ;&Բ;

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Instrument subject to Affirmative Procedure

Meeting date: 13 December 2022

Stuart McMillan

Is the committee content with the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Instrument subject to Negative Procedure

Meeting date: 13 December 2022

Stuart McMillan

Is the committee content with the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

11:20 Meeting continued in private until 11:41.