All EU legislation will be amended, repealed, or replaced under the new Brexit Freedoms Bill introduced to Parliament today (Thursday 22 September), which will end the special legal status of all retained EU law by 2023, and give the UK the opportunity to develop new laws that best fit the needs of the country and grow the economy.

Many EU laws kept on after Brexit were agreed as part of a complex compromise between 28 different EU member states and were simply duplicated into the UK’s statute books, often not considering the UK’s own priorities or objectives.

The Brexit Freedoms Bill will enable the UK government to remove years of burdensome EU regulation in favour of a more agile, home-grown regulatory approach that benefits people and businesses across the UK. By removing these legal restraints and replacing them with what works for the UK, our businesses and economy can innovate and grow to new levels.

As a result of the bill, around £1 billion worth of red tape will be removed, giving businesses the confidence to invest and create jobs, while transforming the UK into one of the best regulated economies in the world.

The Bill is an integral step in the Prime Minister’s mission to unlock growth and will support Britain’s most entrepreneurial businesses to capitalise on the UK’s global leadership in areas like clean energy technologies, life sciences and digital services. This in turn will help to spur real-life benefits and increased living standards for the British public – from advanced healthcare treatments and faster infrastructure projects to increased environmental standards such as cleaner air.

Business Secretary, Jacob Rees Mogg said:

Now that the UK has regained its independence, we have a fantastic opportunity to do away with outdated and burdensome EU laws, and to bring forward our own regulations that are tailor-made to our country’s needs.

The Brexit Freedoms Bill will remove needless bureaucracy that prevents businesses from investing and innovating in the UK, cementing our position as a world class place to start and grow a business.

By giving the government new secondary powers to amend, replace or repeal any retained EU law, the amount of parliamentary time that is required has been dramatically reduced. They will also make it easier for departments to create agile regulation that keeps pace with technological change.

The Bill will end the special status retained EU law has on the UK statute books by 2023, meaning domestic law will be reinstated as the highest form of law on the UK’s statute book again. The most burdensome and outdated EU laws can then be amended, repealed, or replaced.

Consistent with the government’s approach to Brexit policy, the Bill will apply to the entirety of the UK, enabling joint working between the UK government and devolved administrations, and ensuring everyone can access the benefits of Brexit to stimulate economic growth, innovation, and job creation across the Union.

The government has engaged, and will continue to work, with a range of organisations and stakeholders to ensure the best possible outcome when reforming retained EU law. This ensures the UK’s high standards in areas such as workers’ rights and the environment are kept, also giving the UK the opportunity to be bolder and go further than the EU in these areas.

The Bill will maintain all commitments to the international obligations required of the UK. The Bill’s introduction will build on the significant progress the government has made since delivering Brexit on 31 January 2020, which include:

• ending free movement and taking back control of our borders – replacing freedom of movement with a points-based immigration system and making it easier to kick out foreign criminals
• restoring democratic control over our law making – giving the power to make and scrutinise the laws that apply to us back to our Parliament and the devolved legislatures so that they are now made in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and London, not Brussels
• restoring the UK Supreme Court as the final arbiter of the law that applies to the UK – UK judges, sitting in UK courts, now determine all the law of the land in the UK
• securing the vaccine rollout – streamlining procurement processes and avoiding cumbersome EU bureaucracy to deliver the fastest vaccine rollout anywhere in Europe last year (2021)
• striking new free trade deals – with over 70 countries including landmark deals with Australia and New Zealand.
• capitalising on tax freedoms – including getting rid of the VAT on women’s sanitary products (the ‘Tampon Tax’), introducing VAT free installations of energy-efficient materials, working on replacing complex EU alcohol duty rates, and forging ahead to remove the ban on selling in pounds and ounces
• replacing the Common Agricultural Policy – with a system in England that will enable better environmental outcomes
• taking back control of our territorial waters – managing our fisheries and precious marine environment in a more sustainable way
• making it tougher for EU criminals to enter the UK – EU nationals sentenced to a year or more in jail will now be refused entry to the UK
• restoring fair access to our welfare system – ending the preferential treatment of EU migrants over non-EU migrants, ensuring that wherever people are born, those who choose to make the UK their home pay into a system for a reasonable period of time before they can access the benefits of it
• giving UK regulators the ability and resources to make sovereign decisions about globally significant mergers – decisions about globally significant mergers and acquisitions are now made by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, giving it the ability to block or remedy mergers it considers will harm UK consumers
• establishing a new subsidy control regime – We passed the Subsidy Control Act, which allows us to establish our own subsidy regime to support British businesses and innovation. We will have greater freedom to design subsidies which deliver both local and national objectives

• Health and Social Care Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Thérèse Coffey will set out an expectation that anyone who needs an appointment should get one at a GP practice within two weeks – and patients with the most urgent needs should be seen within the same day
• To help people get out of hospitals and into social care support, the government is launching a £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund
• Plan also reflects changes to pension rules to retain more experienced senior clinicians and exploring strengthening how we use volunteers in the health service, including to support ambulance services

Our Plan for Patients will inject £500 million of additional funding into adult social care to help people get out of hospitals and into social care support. The Plan was unveiled by the Health and Social Care Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister today [Thursday 22 September 2022].

In her first major intervention in her new role, Thérèse Coffey announced a package of measures to ensure the public receives the best possible care this winter and next. The Adult Social Care Discharge Fund will help speed up the safe discharge of patients from hospital this winter to free up beds as well as helping to retain and recruit more care workers. With 13,000 patients in beds who should be receiving care in the community, this will improve the flow in emergency departments and help reduce ambulance delays.

The plan also sets out interventions to improve access to general practice appointments, with the expectation that everyone who needs one should get an appointment at a GP practice within two weeks – and that the patients with the most urgent needs should be seen within the same day.

As well as more support staff, an enhanced role for pharmacists and new telephone systems, changes will also be made to NHS pension rules to retain more experienced NHS clinicians and remove the barriers to staff returning from retirement, increasing capacity for appointments and other services.

This includes extending retirement flexibilities to allow retired and partially retired staff to continue to return to work or increase their working commitments without having payment of their pension benefits reduced or suspended, and fixing the unintended impacts of inflation, so senior clinicians aren’t taxed more than is necessary.

Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Thérèse Coffey said:

Patients and those who draw on care and support are my top priority and we will help them receive care as quickly and conveniently as possible.

That is why we are publishing Our Plan for Patients, which will help empower and inform people to live healthier lives, while boosting the NHS’ performance and productivity.

It sets out a range of commitments for our health service, ensuring we create smoother pathways for patients in all parts of health and care.

Alongside the government’s plan to ensure patients get the best possible care, the Health and Social Care Secretary called for a “national endeavour” to support the NHS. This includes encouraging more volunteering across the health service, as well as exploring strengthening how we use volunteers, such as supporting NHS ambulances in the areas of greatest need.

Local health and care partners will be able to decide how best to use the social care funding to improve hospital discharge, and to retain and recruit social care staff.

Funding of £15 million this year will help increase international recruitment of care workers. The funding will enable local areas to support care providers with activities such as visa processing, accommodation and pastoral support for international recruits. This will complement a national domestic recruitment campaign, which will launch shortly.

The Health and Social Care Secretary acknowledged the scale of the challenges facing the NHS in the wake of the pandemic and Our Plan for Patients builds on the NHS Winter Plan, including the roll-out of Covid boosters and flu jabs already underway to help protect the most vulnerable. The plan sets out actions to ensure the best possible care for patients under each of her A, B, C and D priority areas – ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists.

Prime Minister Liz Truss said:

On the steps of Downing Street this month, I pledged that one of my earliest priorities as Prime Minister would be to put our health and care system on a firm footing.

These measures are the first part of that plan and will help the country through the winter and beyond. Ultimately my mission in government is to grow our economy, because that is the best way to support the NHS and social care system and ensure patients are receiving the frontline services they deserve.

• April’s National Insurance increase to be reversed from November – delivering on key PM pledge to cut tax burden and promote economic growth

• Health and Social Care Levy will be cancelled through Bill introduced today – Chancellor has confirmed funding for health and social care services will be protected and will remain at the same level as if the Levy were in place

• Almost 28 million people will keep an extra £330 of their money on average next year, whilst 920,000 businesses are set to save almost £10,000 on average next year thanks to the change

Delivering on the Prime Minister’s pledge to slash taxes to help drive growth, scrapping the rise will reduce tax for 920,000 businesses by nearly £10,000 on average next year as they will no longer pay a higher level of employer National Insurance and can now invest the money as they choose.

The government will also cancel the planned Health and Social Care Levy – a separate tax which was coming into force in April 2023 to replace this year’s National Insurance rise. This will help almost 28 million people across the UK keep more of what they earn, worth an extra £330 on average in 2023-24, with an additional saving of around £135 on average this year.

The Health and Social Care Levy (Repeal) Bill, legislating for the tax change, has been introduced into the House today. As part of the cancellation of the Levy, The Chancellor is also set to confirm that the increases to dividend tax rates will be scrapped from April 2023 in his Growth Plan tomorrow. The increased dividend tax was introduced in April 2022 to ensure those who gained income from dividends contributed the same amount to help fund health and social care.

The Levy was expected to raise around £13 billion a year to fund health and social care. The Chancellor confirmed today that the funding for health and social care services will be maintained at the same level as if the Levy was in place, protecting the NHS through the winter and ensuring long-term investment in social care.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng said:

Taxing our way to prosperity has never worked. To raise living standards for all, we need to be unapologetic about growing our economy.

Cutting tax is crucial to this – and whether businesses reinvest freed-up cash into new machinery, lower prices on shop floors or increased staff wages, the reversal of the Levy will help them grow, whilst also allowing the British public to keep more of what they earn.

The previous government decided to raise National Insurance by 1.25 percentage points in April 2022 to fund health and social care. The rate was due to return to 2021-22 levels in April 2023, when a separate new 1.25% Health and Social Care Levy was due to take effect. Today’s legislation reverses the rise from earlier this year and cancels next year’s introduction of the Levy.

This is part of the government’s pro-growth agenda, backing business to invest, innovate and create jobs and helping raise living standards for everyone across the UK.

920,000 businesses will see a cut in National Insurance bills, with 20,000 taken out of paying National Insurance entirely due to the Employment Allowance, which rose in April 2022 from £4,000 to £5,000.

In particular, many small and medium businesses (SMEs) – who employ over 13 million people in the UK – will see a cut to their National Insurance bills. Next year this will be worth £4,200 on average for small businesses and £21,700 for medium sized firms who pay National Insurance. In total 905,000 micro, small and medium businesses will benefit from 2023-24.

National Insurance thresholds increased in July 2022 to lift 2.2 million of the poorest people in the UK out of paying the tax. The Chancellor has committed to retaining the level of these thresholds to support families. Taken together, the higher thresholds and the Levy reversal mean that almost 30 million people will be better off by an average of over £500 in 2023-24.

With immediate action pledged by the Prime Minister to maximise the cash benefit for people and businesses this year, the government is implementing the changes as soon as possible. Most employees will receive a cut to their National Insurance directly via payroll in their November pay, with some receiving it in December or January, depending on the complexity of their employer’s payroll software.

In addition, the Chancellor is expected to announce in his fiscal event tomorrow that the 1.25 percentage point increase to income tax on dividends announced alongside the Levy, and introduced in April 2022, will be reversed from April 2023. Those who pay tax on dividends will save an average of £345 next year. The reversal of the ‘dividend tax’ rise signals renewed support for entrepreneurs and investors as part of the government’s drive to grow the economy and improve the standard of life for families across the UK.

Overall funding for health and social care services will be maintained at the same level as if the Levy were in place, and the government will be doing this without a tax increase. The additional funding used to replace the expected revenue from the Levy will come from general taxation. The Chancellor is committed to reducing debt-to-GDP ratio over the medium-term and boosting growth, which will help sustainably fund public services.

Further information

• Read the legislation

• Employment Allowance is a relief which allows eligible businesses to reduce their employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) bills each year. At Spring Statement on 23 March 2022 the previous Chancellor announced this would be rising by £1,000 from £4,000 to £5,000.

• Although individuals should contact their employer for refunds as a first port of call in all circumstances, there may be circumstances where individuals may need to apply to HMRC for a refund. For example, if their employer is no longer trading, or if an individual has moved roles and their previous employer has confirmed they are unable to issue a refund retrospectively themselves.

On the 31st January, to mark the two-year anniversary of getting Brexit done, the Government set out its plans to bring forward the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

Retained EU Law is a category of domestic law created at the end of the transition period and consists of EU-derived legislation that was preserved in our domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

Retained EU Law was never intended to sit on the statute book indefinitely. The time is now right to end the special status of retained EU Law in the UK statute book on 31st December 2023. The Bill will abolish this special status and will enable the Government, via Parliament to amend more easily, repeal and replace retained EU Law. The Bill will also include a sunset date by which all remaining retained EU Law will either be repealed, or assimilated into UK domestic law. The sunset may be extended for specified pieces of retained EU Law until 2026.

The retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill is part of the Government’s commitment to put the UK statute book on a more sustainable footing. By ending the special status of retained EU Law, we will reclaim the sovereignty of Parliament, and restore primacy to Acts of Parliament.

Background

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill is the culmination of a journey that began on 23rd June 2016 when more than 17 million citizens of the UK and Gibraltar voted for the UK to leave the European Union (EU).

Our approach to making the UK ‘the best regulated economy in the world’ is set out in the Benefits of Brexit document published in January 2022. This approach is supplemented by the reviews into the substance and status of retained EU law which commenced in September 2021. The Bill will provide the means for Government, via Parliament to update legislation in response to the outcome of the substance and status reviews.

From these reviews, also came the retained EU law dashboard, which is a catalogue of over 2,400 pieces of retained EU law across 300 unique policy areas and 21 sectors of the economy. It was published on the 22nd of June, as part of the Prime Minister’s promise to empower the public to scrutinise EU-derived law that remains on the UK statute book. The dashboard enables the public to hold the government to account on retained EU law reform.

Content of the Bill

Now that the Government has mapped where EU-derived legislation sits on the UK statute book, we are bringing forward this Bill in order to fully realise the opportunities of Brexit, and to support the unique culture of innovation in the UK.

To achieve this, the Bill will include the provisions outlined below.

Sunsetting Retained EU Law

The Bill will sunset the majority of retained EU law so that it expires on 31st December 2023. All retained EU law contained in domestic secondary legislation and retained direct EU legislation will expire on this date, unless otherwise preserved. Any retained EU law that remains in force after the sunset date will be assimilated in the domestic statute book, by the removal of the special EU law features previously attached to it. This means that the principle of the supremacy of EU law, general principles of EU law, and directly effective EU rights will also end on 31st December 2023. There is no place for EU law concepts in our statute book.

Before that date, Government departments and the devolved administrations will determine which retained EU law can expire, and which needs to be preserved and incorporated into domestic law. They will also decide if retained EU law needs to be codified as it is preserved, in order to preserve policy effects the Government intends to keep.

The Bill includes an extension mechanism for the sunset of specified pieces of retained EU law until 2026. Should it be required, this will allow departments additional time where necessary to assess whether some retained EU law should be preserved.

Ending of Supremacy of retained EU law from UK law by 2023

Currently, retained direct EU legislation takes priority over domestic UK legislation passed prior to the end of the Transition Period when they are incompatible. The Bill will reverse this order of priority, to reinstate domestic law as the highest form of law on the UK statute book. Where it is necessary to preserve the current hierarchy between domestic and EU legislation in specific circumstances, the Bill provides a power to  amend the new order of priority to retain particular legislative effects

Assimilated law

Following the removal of the special features of EU law from retained EU law on 31st December 2023, any retained EU law that is preserved will become “assimilated law” to reflect that EU interpretive  features no longer apply.

Facilitating Departures from Retained EU Case Law

The Bill will provide domestic courts with greater discretion to depart from retained case law. It will also provide new court procedures for UK and Devolved Law Officers to refer or intervene in cases regarding retained case law.

Modification of Retained EU Legislation

The Bill will downgrade the status of retained direct EU legislation for the purposes of the amendment. The Bill will also modify powers in other statutes, to facilitate their use to amend retained direct EU legislation in the same way they can be used on domestic secondary legislation. This will enable retained direct EU legislation to be amended more easily, with an appropriate level of scrutiny.

Powers relating to Retained EU Law

The Bill will create powers to make secondary legislation so that retained EU law can be amended, repealed and replaced more easily. The Bill also takes powers to specify, after the sunset, the body of law that will continue to apply in place of retained EU law, and how it should be interpreted. Using these powers, the Government will ensure that only regulation that is fit for purpose, and suited for the UK will remain on the statute book.

Business Impact Target

Having left the EU, the UK has an opportunity to reform its regulatory regime. The UK government published its consultation response to the ‘Reforming the Better Regulation Framework’ and is in the process of implementing the wider reforms outlined.

As part of these reforms, the Bill repeals the Business Impact Target (BIT). The replacement of the BIT, when combined with the other wider reforms, will ensure that regulation is fit for the UK economy, business and households, as well as the future.

Other Government Priorities

The Government will continue to deliver policies to stimulate business growth, innovation and job creation.

This Bill will also not undermine any existing Government enquiries or commitments, for example regarding the Government’s response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The Government remains committed to learning the lessons from the tragedy and delivering on building safety.

More generally, all required legislation relating to tax and retained EU law will be made via the Finance Bill (or subordinate tax legislation) which is usual and appropriate for tax provisions.The government will also introduce a bespoke legislative approach for retained EU law concerning VAT, excise, and customs duty in a future Finance Bill. This approach will revoke any remaining retained direct EU law that the government did not repeal in the Taxation (Cross-border) Trade Act 2018, and make clear that UK Acts of Parliament and subordinate legislation are supreme.

For further information, documents related to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill can be found on the Parliament website.

We have a new and reinvigorated government in Westminster.

A government ready to roll up its sleeves and put in the hard graft so that the future of this country is bright and prosperous.

We must ensure that everyone in our society – irrespective of where they’re from, what they do, or how much money they earn – lives somewhere warm, decent and safe.

We’ve already acted on energy bills, so a typical household will pay no more than £2,500, while providing hundreds of pounds in relief for struggling families this winter.

And we’re acting with that same urgency on building safety.

What happened at Grenfell Tower was nothing short of a national tragedy. It should not have taken the death of 72 people for us to have woken up to just how ineffective the building safety regime was. It is our duty as a government to fix this, and ensure that it never happens again.

Just a few weeks into the job I am hearing from leaseholders who are still waiting for remediation works to be carried out, who are unable to sell, and face sky-high building insurance premiums.

I’m determined to finish the job my predecessors started, fixing the system for good, ensuring that industry rectifies the problems it created, and making sure that the leaseholders who have been so unfairly caught up in this scandal get the relief and protection they deserve.

In recent months, we’ve already taken some big steps in the right direction.

The Building Safety Act came into force over the summer.

It represents the greatest set of reforms in a generation with a tough new regulator and an even tougher regulatory regime to ensure that people’s homes are made safe.

The Act means that every block of flats must now have someone who is responsible for a building’s safety and the residents who live in it.

It also provides far-reaching legal protections to leaseholders so that they’re no longer hit with unfair bills to fix cladding issues.

For the first time government will have powers to force owners to fix dangerous buildings for which they’re responsible and ensure remediation works are both fast and proportionate.

Forty-nine of the largest housebuilders have now risen to the challenge set by government and signed a public pledge to fix unsafe buildings that they developed or refurbished. Responsible housebuilders are wasting no time in getting on with fixing those buildings and I look forward to working with this group on our ambitious housing agenda to deliver the homes and growth this country deserves. We will shortly turn those pledges into legally binding contracts, which will give residents confidence that their homes will be made safe and that leaseholders will not have to pay.

Any housebuilders that fail to act responsibly may be blocked from commencing developments and from being granted building control sign-off for their buildings. This month we have taken steps to set up a scheme in law to show which housebuilders are doing the right thing, and which are failing to do so.

Our Recovery Strategy Unit will expose and pursue firms and individuals involved in the most egregious cases of building safety neglect. Where freeholders are not coming forward and accepting government money to make buildings safe, this unit will be launching legal action. I expect the first cases to be brought very soon. This government is determined to hold the worst actors to account, deliver for leaseholders, and restore confidence in the housing market.

But this was never about heaping blame on one part of the sector. It’s about making the whole industry, including construction product manufacturers, play its part in fixing the wrongs of the past.

That’s one of the reasons why my department is also working hand in hand with the Financial Conduct Authority to ensure that appalling practices within the insurance industry, like the sharing of commissions between brokers and managing agents, which can drive up prices for consumers, are brought to a swift end. I wrote to the British Insurers Brokers Association myself this week and I expect this immoral behaviour to stop immediately.

It is also why we will continue to work relentlessly with the lending industry to ensure leaseholders are no longer trapped by over the top risk aversion and unnecessary paperwork, freeing them to take their next step on the housing ladder. I welcome their commitments so far but now is the time to see tangible changes to unlock the market.

We will make homes safer. We will protect leaseholders from crippling costs. And we will work to restore the right of everyone in this country to feel safe in the place where they and their loved ones sleep at night.