EU laws on the UK statute book "virtually negligible"

One of the big drivers of the leave vote in 2016 was the suggestion that the EU was responsible for a huge percentage of UK law, much of it ‘forced’ on us by unelected bureaucrats and not properly scrutinised by MPs and peers in parliament. I seem to remember all kinds of figures being bandied about, up to 70-75%, although the House of Commons Library put it much lower at about 13%. I was puzzled at the time how it could have been so hard to determine what the actual number was but now, as the government struggles to rid the UK Statute book of anything with the words Europe or Union in it, we are seeing just how exaggerated the figures were.

I realise all this is water under the bridge now, but I still think we need to have answers to some of these questions which are bound to arise again, and be prepared to offer something more truthful next time.

Michael Dougan, a professor of EU law published an explanation about it some time ago although it’s not obvious exactly when since the document seems to be an extract from a book and is undated. I assume it was after the referendum.

He sets out the problem, which came initially from a casual off-the-cuff remark by an EU Commissioner Viviane Reding apparently suggesting three-quarters of UK Law came from Brussels. Unfortunately, I can't find the original link which goes to UKIP's website and now has a 404 error (page not found). I can see from The Daily Mail, the 70% figure was attributed to Ms Reding in a report from February 2014: Britons 'too ignorant' for EU referendum: Top official says debate on Europe is so distorted that people could not make an 'informed decision'

I think it's pretty obvious now she was spot-on about the ignorance.

Boris Johnson, appearing before the House of Commons Treasury Committee in March 2016, put the true number at 60% but this turned out to be a gross misrepresentation of House of Commons Library research dating from 2014. 

The figures were debunked HERE and HERE and probably elsewhere too but as we know they tended to stick, since truth and facts were quickly taken hostage and silenced once the campaign got underway. 

In March 2015, Business for Britain (a front organisation founded by Matthew Elliot) published this table:

This was used to support a piece called: The EU’s Influence over British Law: The Definitive Answer (March 2015): between 1993 and 2014, 64.7% of UK law was EU-influenced; in particular, EU regulations accounted for 59.3% of all UK law.

Note the 49,699 EU Regulations plus the 4,532 primary and secondary acts.

How, given that in 2022 Rishi Sunak was talking about shredding just 2,400 Retained EU Laws and that in fact a very much smaller number have actually been repealed or replaced, while the total figure is said to be more like 6,000 at most?

Dougan supplies the answer:

"The vast majority of EU non-legislative regulations are purely technical and administrative in character. In fact, they constitute one of the main legal instruments through which the EU institutions reach detailed decisions: for example, updating the scientific registers of chemicals and food additives; calculating the precise allocation of import licences under the common commercial policy; adjusting specific anti-dumping duties on cheap imports from third countries; confirming the regular continuance of UN sanctions on particular third countries or named individuals suspected of involvement in terrorism; entering or updating specific foodstuffs in the register of protected designations of origin etc.

"As a result, the Business for Britain study was simply not comparing like with like. 

"If one were to apply their understanding of “EU law” also to “UK law”, then one would have to add into the calculation vast numbers of UK decisions taken by public officials in a wide range of public bodies across the entire country – which would surely render the EU component of any statistics on the total volume of “UK law” virtually negligible."

The so-called 'definitive answer' was completely wrong and a total distortion of the truth. 

Professor Michael Dougan, a Professor of European Law and Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law at the University of Liverpool by the way, presumably knows a bit more about it than Matthew Elliot. Dougan says if you make a like-for-like comparison, it means that the EU part of UK law is - to use his words, "virtually negligible."

It certainly isn't three-quarters, 70% or even the 60% Johnson claimed in 2016.  The EU component also includes laws that Britain would have passed in any event, in or out of the EU, and is probably even less than virtually negligible.  

You only have to consider this for a second or two to realise just how wrong Business for Britain was. Britain has been legislating for centuries but Elliot suggests the EU passed more laws in 21 years than all the British parliaments put together. Crazy isn't it?

Anyone who voted leave on that basis shouldn't be surprised that the UK government is struggling to find Retained EU Laws that must be repealed or replaced. 

The fact is there are very few that fall into that category.  They were never there in the first place.