Having posted yesterday about the cost of Brexit, I noticed on another blog someone had commented with a link to what is a draft (HERE) of the Statutory Instrument (SI) to be used to remove the European Parliamentary elections from the UK statute book. The SI is described so:
The Minister for the Cabinet Office makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 17(1) and (5), and 18(3) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018(a).
And:
1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Parliamentary Elections Etc. (Repeal, Revocation, Amendment and Saving Provisions) (United Kingdom and Gibraltar) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 and come into force on exit day.
Schedule 1, part 1 lists the laws or parts of laws repealed and it runs to about 14 or so ranging from The Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1962(d) to The Greater London Authority Act 1999(b) and The Equality Act 2010(d).
Part 2 lists laws or parts of laws that are to be revoked (I don't know the difference between repealing and revoking but there obviously is one) and this covers another 42 laws including The Combined Authorities (Mayoral Elections) Order 2017(c), The Neighbourhood Planning (Referendums) Regulations 2012(a) and The Greater London Authority (Limitation of Salaries) (Amendment) Order 2012(a).
Schedule 2, part 1 lists amendments to primary legislation (4 Acts) and part 2 lists amendments to secondary legislation (another 11 laws). This covers things like The Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (Council Tax Increases) (England) Regulations 2012 and The Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001.
A few laws are repealed or revoked entirely but mostly they're modifying a lot of existing law and with a lot of small but highly detailed minor changes, for example:
In Regulation 42 of the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001(a)—
(a) in paragraph (1)— (i) for “Paragraphs (3) to (7)” substitute “Paragraphs (3), (5) and (6)”;
(ii) for the words from “of the four registers” to “European Parliamentary overseas electors)” substitute “of the two registers (those of: parliamentary electors and local government elections);
(b) omit paragraphs (4) and (7).
And remember this is just for removing the European Parliamentary elections from the UK statute book. I understand the government has said there is likely to be 800-1000 Statutory Instruments needed. Much of this is highly technical and detailed stuff but fraught with difficulties and potential errors. If you were thinking of career options for the next decade or so, you could do worse than become a lawyer. They will be in short supply when the dust has settled arguing over the impact of Brexit on just about every corner of human activity in this country.
I seem to remember Bill Cash on television before the referendum telling everyone that it would all be a very simple job to transfer EU law into English law. It's a disaster.
