Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill:

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022-23 initially provided that, unless otherwise expressly preserved by ministerial order, most EU-derived secondary legislation and retained direct EU legislation would expire on 31 December 2023 (this was widely known as the ‘sunset’ or ‘sunsetting’ provision).

This automatic expiry of EU derived laws was widely criticised, with the CIPD, TUC and IOD all expressing concern due to its potentially widespread, unknown, and unpredictable consequences. Critics said the Bill would lead to a ‘bonfire’ of EU derived employment rights because it potentially meant the immediate revocation of the Working Time Regulations 1998, TUPE, and key regulations relating to the protection of fixed term employees, part time workers and agency workers.

However, the government has recently announced a changed in its approach. On 10 May 2023, Kemi Badenoch MP, Secretary of State for the Department of Business and Trade, announced that the government would be tabling amendments to the Bill in order to replace the sunsetting provision with a specific list of the retained EU laws that the government intends to revoke at the end of 2023.  Essentially, unless an EU-derived law is on the list of laws being repealed, it will remain in force.

The list of EU-derived law which the government intends to revoke is subject to change (the current version of the list can be found in the ‘amendment paper’ section here) but so far, in terms of employment law, it includes:

• The Posted Workers (Enforcement of Employment Rights) Regulations 2016: which concern the temporary posting of workers in the construction sector to work in an EU member state other than the one in which the worker normally works;
• The Posted Workers (Agency Workers) Regulations 2020: which concern the posting of agency workers to an EEA country where the agency worker does not normally work; and
• The Community Drivers’ Hours and Working Time (Road Tankers) (Temporary Exception) (Amendment) Regulations 2006: which provided for the temporary and limited relaxation (in part, and until 10 February 2006) of the EU Drivers’ Hours and Working Time Rules for tanker drivers directly affected by 2005 fire at the Buncefield fuel depot.