This Bill provides a high degree of certainty for businesses and citizens by ensuring continuity and certainty and avoiding a sudden change in the law at the end of the Brexit negotiations.
It is important to note that workers' rights, consumer protection and environmental laws will not change because of this Bill. However, in line with the decision of the British People, it will be Parliament’s responsibility to protect these rights in the future. As a supporter of Brexit, I fully support this Bill, and believe that the best guardians of these rights are the directly elected Members of Parliament.
In relation to the concerns of Government using the Bill to bypass parliament, I am confident, and will continue to fight for our right to scrutinise legislation. Regarding the Henry VIII Powers, the Government White Paper clearly states that these powers will only be used in cases where technicalities need to be resolved. It states:
“It is crucial that the Government is equipped to make all the necessary corrections to the statute book before we leave the EU to ensure a smooth and orderly withdrawal. To achieve this, the power to enable this correction will need to allow changes to be made to the full body of EU-derived law…It will also include the power to transfer to UK bodies or ministers powers that are contained in EU-derived law and which are currently exercised by EU bodies. This does mean that the power will be wide in terms of the legislation to which it can be used to make changes.
Therefore, it is important that the purposes for which the power can be used are limited. Crucially, we will ensure that the power will not be available where Government wishes to make a policy change which is not designed to deal with deficiencies in preserved EU derived law arising out of our exit from the EU.
I believe this is a sensible approach to dealing with such a complex issue, and am confident that any meaningful changes to the law will continue to take place through the framework of our democratic parliamentary system.
