Overview

This bill concerns amendments to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. The main focus of the amendments is to strengthen the safeguards for environmental protection and to increase parliamentary scrutiny of regulations related to the revocation and reform of EU law.

Description

The bill proposes several amendments, primarily centered around two key areas: environmental protection and parliamentary oversight. Initial amendments aimed to ensure that new regulations replacing or reforming EU law would not diminish environmental protections or consumer food safety standards. These were later revised due to disagreements between the Houses of Parliament. The final version maintains requirements for not lowering environmental protection but removes the related food safety and labelling standards requirements.

Regarding parliamentary scrutiny, several iterations of amendments were proposed and rejected in both the House of Lords and House of Commons. The amendments primarily seek to introduce mechanisms for greater scrutiny of new regulations replacing or reforming EU-derived laws, including pre-legislative review by a parliamentary committee and the possibility of floor debates and votes in both Houses before the regulations are enacted. The final agreed amendment requires a specific committee of the House of Commons to review regulations that revoke and replace or provide alternatives to secondary retained EU laws, with the possibility of a debate and vote in both Houses if the committee recommends special attention. This involves a 60 day period for scrutiny. The committee can also recommend that the regulation not proceed at any point before enactment.

Government Spending

The amendments do not directly specify changes to government spending. The potential impact on spending would depend on the specific regulations created under the original Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill and the choices made by the relevant authorities, in accordance with the amendment requirements.

Groups Affected

• Environmental groups: Potentially positively impacted by the strengthened environmental protections safeguards.
• Food producers and businesses: The initial amendments concerning food safety and labelling would have affected them, but the final amendment removes this element.
• Parliament: The amendments increase the parliamentary scrutiny of regulations arising from the Bill, giving MPs a greater role in the process.
• Government departments: Will face increased scrutiny and potentially additional administrative burden due to the added parliamentary processes.

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