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The Great Repeal Bill White Paper sets out the government’s proposals for ensuring a functioning statute book once the UK has left the European Union.
It provides the detail about:
Certainty and stability for UK businesses as negotiations begin on new relationship with Europe
The White Paper, called ‘Legislating for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union’, makes clear that existing workers’ legal rights will continue to be guaranteed in law.
A significant proportion of existing EU law will cease to work properly without changes being made.
To enable these laws to function properly on exit, providing certainty and stability, the Government needs to undertake a programme of legislation to correct the statute book while Article 50 negotiations take place.
The White Paper sets out how the Government will look to address those issues through a new time limited correcting power, to apply before the UK leaves the EU and for a limited period afterwards.
This will enable changes through secondary legislation, and ensure there is a smooth transition as EU law becomes UK law.
Enabling technical changes to be made quickly will also allow for Parliament to have the appropriate amount of time to fully scrutinise substantive policy changes that require primary legislation, such as new Immigration and Customs Bills.
And the White Paper proposes there is a time limit on the power to make changes through secondary legislation.
The Government plans also makes clear that during this process, no decisions currently taken by the devolved administrations will be removed from them.
The Government will use this opportunity to make sure more decisions are devolved — and Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be given the same powers to fix broken laws in devolved legislation.
David Davis' Commons statement on the Great Repeal Bill White Paper
This White Paper lays out a pragmatic and principled approach to converting EU law into UK law on the day we leave the EU — giving businesses, workers and investors as much certainty as possible.
It also means the negotiation over our future economic partnership with the EU will be unlike any other in history, because we will start from a point of exact equivalence.
After that, it will be for Parliament to determine what EU legislation it wants to amend, repeal or improve — finally ending the supremacy of EU lawmakers.
Our plan will also give the UK Parliament and the devolved legislatures the ability to make changes to law where necessary, so that our legal system continues to operate correctly on exit day.