On 10 May 2023, the government announced its proposals for reforming employment law post-Brexit in its policy paper, Smarter Regulation to Grow the Economy, the main headline of which was the decision to reverse the sunset date from the Brexit Bill.
The new policy paper sets out the first series of reforms in the government’s vision for a post-Brexit world and in particular focuses on how current EU derived regulations can be improved to reduce burdens on businesses. This new package is noted as seeking to improve regulations in employment law following the UK’s departure from the EU ‘whilst maintaining UK labour standards which are some of the highest in the world’.
Sunset date thrown onto the Brexit bonfire
The abandonment of the sunset clause in the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (also known as the Brexit Bill), comes as a surprise to many, especially given the large volume of commentary that was written about it both after the Bill was initially announced and during the passing of the Bill through the House of Commons.
The Bill was originally designed to ensure that all UK law derived from the EU would cease to have legal effect on 31 December 2023. This date was coined the ‘sunset date’. The exceptions were where a law was reviewed and restated in new UK legislation prior to the sunset date or if a minister opted to delay the sunset date for specified EU laws until 23 June 2026 – the 10 anniversary of the Brexit Referendum.
This new announcement means...
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