Retained EU law and assimilated law dashboard

FollowingIn aSeptember 2021, the government announced the review ofinto the substance andof statusretained of EU law (REUL by) to determine which departments, policy areas and sectors of the previouseconomy government,contain the dashboardmost wasREUL. 

This firstinitial publishedexercise culminated in the publication of the dashboard in June 20222022, andwhich catalogued 2,417 individual pieces of retained EU law (REUL) identified. byThe UK government departments. The REUL and assimilateddashboard lawwas dashboardcreated providesto provide the public with information on how much legislation is derived from the EU, and the actionsprogress takenthe togovernment eitheris reform,making revokein oraccelerating retainits it.

reform. It includes UK legislation which is reserved, and which has mixed competence or falls under devolved competence. However,competence. However, it does not include any legislation made by the devolved institutions in Scotland, Northern Ireland,Ireland Scotland or Wales.Wales. 

OverThe thepublic subsequentis monthsinvited andto years,explore additional REUL wasthis identified,catalogue now amounting to 6,735build individualan pieces. Theunderstanding dashboard was updated in July 2024 alongside publication of thehow Assimilatedmuch LawEU-derived Parliamentarylegislation Report,sits whichon outlines the activitiesUK ofstatute thebook previous government, fulfilling our statutory duty to do so. The dashboard continues to provide a useful resource for tracking the ongoing status of assimilated law.

Going forward, this government’s regulatory reform agenda will be driven by our manifesto commitments to create a pro-business environment with a regulatory framework that supports innovation, investment and high-qualityscrutinise jobs. The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will continue to lead the work across Whitehall to determine how best to proceed with regulatory reform to achieve our objectives.legislation.

Background

REUL was was a type of domestic lawlaw, created by the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EUWA) and which came into effect at the end of the UK’s post-Brexit transition period (which ended on 31 December 2020). The primary objective of of REUL was was to provide legal continuity and certainty at the end of the transition period. period.

On 29 June 2023,2023 the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2023 received Royal Assent. UnderAssent, paving the way for significant regulatory reforms and enabling the removal of REUL from the UK statute book. Under the ‘REUL Act’,  Act’, REUL which which had not been revoked by the end of 2023 then became “assimilated law”. Unlike Unlike REUL, assimilated law is not interpreted in line with EU principles of interpretation; these were removed from domestic law by the the REUL Act Act with effect from 1 January 2024.2024.   

The catalogue of of REUL can can be accessed via Microsoft Power BIBI, which hosts the sixth iteration of the interactive REUL dashboard and provides viewers with the opportunity to explore and filter the legislation within. The dashboard now holds a total of 6,7356,757 individual pieces of of REUL, concentrated over 400 unique policy areas. This is almost three times as many pieces of REUL as had been identified by the review which concluded in June 2022.  

Creating and continuing to develop this record of EU-derived legislation will enable the government to accelerate regulatory reform and reclaim the UK statute book. Going forward, the government will continue to update this catalogue on a regular basis as departments work to identify where more legislation can be amended, repealed or replaced. This dashboard documents the government’s progress against that aim.

For further instructions on using the dashboard visit the Retained EU Law and Assimilated Law dashboard.