UK sets out plan to replace EU laws

Thousands of EU laws on everything from workers’ rights to the environment are to be scrapped or replaced with UK equivalents in a new plan.

Details of the planned Great Repeal Bill have been published – the day after the UK officially began the two year process of leaving the EU.

Ministers need to “copy and paste” EU laws into UK law to avoid a legal “black hole” when Brexit happens.

It comes as ministers reject claims of a row with the EU over future security.

In a statement to MPs, Brexit Secretary David Davis said the repeal bill would “provide clarity and certainty for businesses and consumers on the day we leave the EU”.

He said it would allow businesses to continue operating “knowing the rules have not changed overnight” and ensure there was “no sudden change” to individual rights.

Workers rights, environmental protection and consumer rights currently enshrined in EU laws would continue as before when Britain left, he added.

But the UK Parliament, and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, would then be able to amend or scrap these laws without EU consent.

The bill will also “end the supremacy” of EU law in the UK, “delivering” on the result of last year’s referendum, he added.

“Our laws will then be made in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast and interpreted not by judges in Luxembourg but by judges across the United Kingdom,” he told MPs.

-BBC