Almut Bonhage

Under no-deal pressures the UK government has been in a hurry to complete the copy across of the EU’s acquis and has already laid 515 Statutory Instruments, a quarter of them coming from Defra.

Greener Alliance argue that as NGOs have only analyzed a small part of the laws, the Brexit delay now brings an opportunity to further scrutinize the Government’s legislative work and possibly push for amendments where required.

According to Green Alliance, the fast passage process of legislation has diminished stakeholder involvement and parliamentary debate. It has also resulted in mistakes which will have important consequences on environmental protection. Defra did put in place a mechanism for advance viewing of legislation and for gathering ideas and advice, but this apparently came too late in the process to have meaningful impact and address deficiencies.

For example, the UK replica of the chemicals safety legislation REACH, had to be amended after complaints from industry arose concerning transitional arrangements to avoid supply chain disruptions. Further, environmental NGOs have pointed to greater deficiencies, which are believed to lower protection levels (by deviating from the REACH governance system on stakeholder engagement and commitment to future outcomes).  

Green Alliance article

REACH etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) (No. 2) Regulations 2019

A legal opinion commissioned by the Greens in the German Bundestag has found that the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) is not effective in enforcing the non-regression in the level of environmental protection, labour and social standards, set out in the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland – the so-called backstop of the draft WA.

The backstop in regard to environment, excludes the non-regression provisions from the scope the WA’s enforcement mechanism (the dispute settlement mechanism including the binding decisions of the arbitration panel). Only the minimum requirements for the monitoring and enforcement related to environmental protection, which are the set-up of an “independent body” and the availability of judicial proceedings for members of the public and administrations, are covered by the WA’s enforcement mechanism. The opinion written by Dr. René Repasi from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, therefore argues that regressing from the common environmental protection level on its own cannot be challenged. What matters is whether the procedures are effective in sanctioning the regression. This means that only if an environmental regression takes place over a long time which the party’s own enforcement system fails to remedy, would a call to the WA’s arbitration panel stand a chance.

Dr. Emily Lydgate, lecturer at the University of Sussex, finds the approach innovative in establishing a middle way between total alignment, like under the EEA Agreement, and much more distant trade agreement, like the ones with Canada and Korea.

A further weakness identified by Dr. Repasi’s opinion in ensuring a level-playing field is the general nature of the non-regression provisions. A list of regulations do feature in the WA, but these are applicable only to Northern Ireland and not to the UK.

The opinion concludes that the level-playing field should be rendered as clear as possible in legal terms. This would entail the environmental areas mentioned in the WA, such as industrial emissions, nature, chemicals and climate, being reflected by a list of legislation and standards, and their enforcement not being excluded from the scope the arbitration procedure.

Dr. Emily Lydgate (2018). Environmental non-regression in the Withdrawal Agreement: forcing the EU’s hand on the Level Playing Field

Dr. René Repasi (2019). Durchsetzung der materiellen Vorgaben des „Level-Playing Fields“ im „Backstop“ des Entwurfs für ein Abkommen über den Austritt des Vereinigten Königreichs Großbritannien und Nordirland aus der Europäischen Union in den Bereichen des Umwelt- sowie Arbeits- und Sozialschutzes. Expert opinion commissioned by the Greens in the Bundestag, Dr Franziska Brantner, MdB.

The UK government announced in November 2018 that a total of 700 Statutory Instruments (SIs) need to be adopted in preparation for Brexit. 515 SIs have been laid before Parliament so far, which amounts to approximately 10,269 pages of legislation. However, only 396 of the 515 SIs (76%) have completed their passage through Parliament.

Defra has produced the most SIs, laying 122 (23%) before Parliament. A National Audit Office report stated that Defra needed 93 SIs “to complete the conversion of EU law into UK law at the point of exit”.

The Government initially expected to lay 800-1,000 SIs before Parliament, but this number has been revised and reduced over the past few months.

Brexit Statutory Instruments Dashbord, Hansard Society