Interaction with the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and secondary legislation
22 EU rules and regulations will continue to apply in the UK during the implementation period. The Bill, therefore, amends the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 so that the conversion of EU law into ‘retained EU law’ and the domestication of historic Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) case law can take place at the end of the implementation period rather than on ‘exit day’. The Bill defines this point in time as ‘IP completion day’ at clause 37.
23 The Bill does not seek to change the purpose of the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which is to provide a functioning statute book outside the UK’s membership of the EU. The amendments in the Bill are technical changes to ensure that retained EU law can operate as intended at the end of the implementation period.
24 The Bill also amends the deficiency-correcting powers in the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 to allow them to correct deficiencies arising both from withdrawal (i.e. from the UK leaving the EU and ceasing to be a Member State) and from the termination or any other effect of the implementation period. For instance, deficiencies could arise where:
a. the law does not function appropriately or sensibly because of the UK’s exit from the EU and the end of the implementation period, such as where a piece of legislation references an obligation ‘under EU law’, which no longer applies at the end of the implementation period. This reference may need to be amended, for instance, to a reference to the obligation under retained EU law, in order for the piece of legislation to continue to function usefully.
b. reciprocal arrangements which, as a result of Part 4 of the Withdrawal Agreement, no longer apply to the UK at the end of the implementation period. For instance, during the implementation period, the UK will need to continue to report to the European Commission on many issues. On IP completion day, the reference to the European Commission could be removed or replaced with reference to a domestic UK body or replacement UK domestic regime.
25 The amendments will not affect the procedures for the scrutiny of secondary legislation made under the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018, including the system set out in paragraph 3 of Schedule 7 to that Act requiring the ‘sifting’ of certain statutory instruments proposed to be made by the ‘negative’ procedure.