Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what the legal status of retained EU law under the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill will be; and whether it will be liable to judicial review.

Retained EU law includes both preserved domestic legislation and converted direct EU legislation. The latter was not made by UK legislators and will operate in a different way to both primary and secondary legislation. It would therefore not be appropriate to assign a single status to this legislation for all purposes.

Preserved domestic legislation will continue to hold the same status as it does currently (i.e. primary or secondary). Converted EU legislation will not automatically have primary or secondary status. Instead, the Bill sets out the status of this legislation for specified purposes in a number of places. For example, for the purposes of the Human Rights Act, it will be treated as primary legislation. Further regulations may be made under the Bill for the purpose of status under other statutes.

Existing domestic legislation will remain amenable to judicial review as at present. In general (and subject to any further regulations made under the Bill), it will not be possible to challenge the validity of converted EU legislation. To do otherwise would raise uncertainties and practical difficulties as the EU instruments being converted were not made by UK Ministers but by EU institutions.