A steady stream of legislation in the form of Statutory Instruments (SIs) flows out of the Department for Exiting the EU (DEXEU) with ever longer titles. The latest of these appear on the news feed lower down the right hand sidebar of this blog. SIs are subordinate legislation passed on a sort of ministerial decree without much or usually any parliamentary scrutiny. They are known in shorthand as Henry VIII powers.
At the time of writing 34 have been issued although eventually, Brexit is said to need between 800 and 1000 SIs simply to keep the UK statute book from collapsing after Brexit (HERE) under the weight of a lot of contradictions. See the total HERE.
At the time of writing 34 have been issued although eventually, Brexit is said to need between 800 and 1000 SIs simply to keep the UK statute book from collapsing after Brexit (HERE) under the weight of a lot of contradictions. See the total HERE.
It all looks like state sponsored vandalism to me.
I pick one at random which is soon to be passed. This is THE EUROPEAN UNION (DEFINITION OF TREATIES ORDER) (REVOCATION) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS 2018. There are any number of SIs going through with similarly long and incomprehensible titles.
The explanatory memorandum for it is HERE. The actual 2018 SI is really a long list of treaties that were enacted into UK law by earlier SIs through the EU. See it HERE. The list includes stuff like: The European Communities (Definition of Treaties) (North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization) Order 1985 and The European Communities (Definition of Treaties) (The Energy Charter Treaty) Order 1996. Are any of these things important? I don't know. Not to me but to some people they may be but all being repealed. Are they to be replaced? The memorandum says:
"After the repeal of the ECA 1972 the UK will no longer implement obligations under the EU Treaties via the ECA 1972 and will therefore not require the orders which declare that a treaty, agreement or other texts specified in the order is to be regarded as one of the “EU Treaties” for the purpose of the ECA 1972"
"The forthcoming Withdrawal Agreement and Implementation Bill will implement the UK’s withdrawal agreement with the EU. Other legislative changes will be provided for by domestic legislation in the usual fashion".
How anyone is in future to make sense of it all is a mystery to me. And it seems impossible that 1000 pieces of Statutory Instrument legislation will go through without errors being made. It will take years and years to settle down and by then we will be ready to rejoin the EU.
