Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Written evidence submitted by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) (REULB31)

Safeguarding Our Standards:

CTSI calls for the Government to delay the Retained EU Law Bill

About CTSI

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) is one of the world’s longest-established organisations dedicated to c onsumer p rotection. We aim to safeguar d the health, safety and wellbeing of the public by empowering consumers, encouraging honest business and targeting rogue practices.  W e provide information, guidance and evidence-based policy advice to support local and national stakeholders including central and devolved governments.

Trading Standards services are responsible for enforcing more than 250 pieces of vital legislation. These cover a wide range of areas, including:

· Food safety – ensuring the food we eat is accurately described and free from harmful substances;

· Product safety – making sure goods such as electrical appliances, toys and cosmetics are safe;

· Scams and rogue traders – combatting criminals who prey on society’s most vulnerable people;

· Animal health and welfare – safeguarding livestock and pets, and fighting disease outbreaks;

· Fair trading – ensuring that consumers’ rights are upheld and they are not being ripped off;

· Legal metrology – enforcing accurate weights and measures so consumers get what they pay for.

CTSI’s membership consists of Trading Standards professionals working on the front line of consumer protection. Those members – and our Lead Officer network of experts – give us a comprehensive and practical understanding of how legislation affects real people and businesses at a grassroots level.

We understand how removing or amending a piece of legislation can have significant knock-on effects on people’s health, wellbeing and livelihoods. Changes to legislation affect the ability of our members to carry out important enforcement work, which in turn affects ordinary people and businesses across the UK.

The work of Trading Standards also has a crucial role in safeguarding the economy; laws that enable Trading Standards to enforce animal disease control, for example, help prevent and contain the types of outbreak that, in the past, have cost the UK billions.

CTSI Brexit Think Tank

In order to consider the potential outcomes, risks and opportunities for Trading Standards of EU Exit, CTSI gathered together subject matter experts in the broad areas most influenced by EU membership to form the Brexit Think Tank. Detailed research and analysis were carried out for the subject area; Fair Trading, e-Commerce, Product Safety, Food Standards, Animal Health and Agriculture, Intellectual Property, Travel, Legal Metrology and Cross-Border Access to Justice. Their findings were first released in 2018 and were updated in 2020 and 2021. The Brexit Think Tank findings can all be found   here .

Campaigning activity – Safeguarding Our Standards

CTSI is deeply concerned that the proposed Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform Bill) could prevent our members from being able to effectively carry out their work. As it currently stands, the REUL could affect all of the areas of consumer protection listed above, as well as things like labelling requirements for energy-efficiency products; access to Alternative Dispute resolution schemes; and provisions relating to passenger transport.

The revelation on 8 November that a further 1,400 laws could be affected by REUL – in addition to the 2,400 previously announced – suggests that the full scale of the process outlined in the Bill has not been comprehensively understood. It also raises the prospect of even more pieces of legislation being affected as the deadline of 31 December 2023 approaches.

CTSI is calling on the Government to reconsider its timetable for the implementation of the Retained EU Law Bill and to give a cast-iron guarantee that UK/British consumers will be no worse off – including upholding the highest standards for food, the safety of the products we use and the protections that safeguard so many of us on a daily basis.

The Government must not rush to rewrite laws designed to protect the public without fully considering whether they are proportionate, enforceable and fit for purpose.

Extra time would give legal experts, charities and other professions the opportunity to properly understand the consequences of any proposed changes to the law, time for Parliament to scrutinise those changes, and time for consumers and businesses to be consulted.

CTSI’s Safeguarding Our Standards campaign is urging anyone with an interest in protecting the welfare of the UK’s people, environment and economy to support our call for a delay in the implementation of the Retained EU Law Bill, and to demand a cast-iron guarantee that the standards the British public deserve will be maintained.

For more information

CTSI will be happy to speak to the Parliamentary Bill Committee to provide more detail on key areas as required. For further information on the campaign, and to speak to Trading Standards experts about how the Bill could affect specific areas of consumer protection enforcement, contact policy@tsi.org.uk.

November 2022