Select committee: Constitution Committee
Recommendation 33
13th Report - Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill
Published 17 Feb 2023
Constitution Committee Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We reiterate our conclusion that the use of delegated legislation to create criminal offences is in general constitutionally unacceptable. Clause 15(4) should be amended so that the power may not be used to create criminal offences . Devolution Use of powers in areas of devolved competence
From: Constitution Committee, 13th Report - Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, 17 February 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 15 May 2023.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government responds that it considers the Bill's delegated powers "necessary and appropriate", disagrees that the Bill is framework legislation, and agrees on one point about criminal offences.
- On parliamentary scrutiny, it says all statutory instruments using the clause 16(3) power "will be subject to the affirmative procedure", as will those amending primary legislation; instruments that revoke REUL or restate interpretive effects will be subject to the sifting procedure.
- On criminal offences, it "agrees" that delegated legislation should not create new offences Parliament has not scrutinised, saying any offences or penalties under the Bill must "correspond to, or be similar to" those in the revoked provisions. The response does not state that the clause will be amended.
- On devolved administrations, it says it is "unnecessary to make this commitment" to consult before using the powers in devolved areas, because existing fora are working well. It states it would "not normally" legislate in devolved areas without agreement.
- On legal certainty, it says amendments laid at Lords Report Stage will replace the sunset in clause 1 with revocation of specified legislation listed in a Schedule, to be revoked on 31 December 2023. It states that no REUL required to uphold international commitments will be included.