Hi,

Has the process for removing references to the EU been finalised and if so when and how was it done? 

First the UK Parliament passed the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This did several things starting with repealing the European Communities Act 1972. This is the legislation that made the UK part of the EC and later the EU. Particular it mean that the UK had to comply with what ever legislation came out of the EU and UK courts had to follow the rulings if the European Court of Justice(ECJ) and if there was a conflict between EU law and UK law , EU took precedence.

Under the withdrawal Act, the UK will from the start of this year no longer need to apply EU legislation and the ECJ will no longer set precedence for UK courts. All existing EU rules will be saved as UK law and will continue to be applied but the UK government will be able to alter or repeal them as they want. Similarly, UK courts will no longer be expected to follow ECJ ruling. Because of this the EU law will not disappear over night but instead will diverge from UK law. How far this will happen depends on the agreement due to be reached at the end of this year. The EU have said that if the UK wishes to trade with the EU single market, they will need   apply some EU rules. How will that work is a major sticking point of the talks. The UK government want the option to pick and chose which rules will apply to them and not have to apply to the ECJ for any sort of legal rulings. The way the talks look like now it seems that no deal will be struck and the UK will be able to change the rules as they see fit but they will not be given any special access to EU markets but will rely on WTO rules.

The question is what the UK government will do to make the UK more “competitive”. The temptation might be to water down some of the rules that the EU adopted including, employment rights, environmental legislation , food safety, consumer rights and health and safety. We will see.   

Edited by user 20 October 2020 11:09:56(UTC)  | Reason: words and thgings