Today, Wednesday 18th January, the Retained EU Law Bill (REUL) is scheduled to have its Report Stage and third and final reading in the House of Commons, before moving on to the House of Lords.
If it is not scrapped, it will have profound and alarming consequences for the UK’s four nations as well as miring all four Governments’ departments in red tape when they are already fully stretched tackling the nature and climate crisis.
In addition to having serious implications for environmental protections in England, the Bill will have major consequences for environmental law and legal certainty in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Scottish Government has strongly opposed the Bill, calling it a “deregulatory race to the bottom” and the Welsh Government has labelled the Bill a “power grab”.
Jo Pike, Chief Executive of Scottish Wildlife Trust says: “We are currently in a nature and climate crisis and the Scottish Government is rightly concerned about the potentially catastrophic impact of this Bill, which would wipe away decades of environmental and other protections with potentially far-reaching unintended consequences. The Scottish Wildlife Trust shares these concerns and hopes that action can urgently be taken to reverse these proposals, which will harm nature, people, communities and our economy, as well as undermining devolution.”
Jennifer Fulton, Chief Executive of Ulster Wildlife, says: “Despite having no government in Northern Ireland, this Bill would task non-existent Stormont ministers with assessing over 500 pieces of legislation on issues from the environment and food safety, to workers rights and public health. So far, Westminster has given no suggestions as to how Northern Ireland is expected to do this. This Bill creates a serious risk that our environmental protections will simply be removed by default, and will have implications for the Northern Ireland protocol.”
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Posted On: 18/01/2023