Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has deprioritised any Statutory Instruments in relation to the UK leaving the EU; and if he will publish the criteria his Department uses to deprioritise those Instruments.

The Government’s objective has always been to have a functioning statute book in place by Exit Day and to ensure that the most critical secondary legislation was made by this point.

Each SI in the Department was carefully considered on a case-by-case basis.

As part of this analysis, BEIS officials considered the material impact of each SI and whether the changes required were minor and technical in nature, and therefore not deemed essential to be in force from day one.

These considerations and assessments have meant that my Department has been able to lay the critical secondary legislation required before we exit the EU.

The laying of EU Exit SIs allows Parliament to fulfil its essential scrutiny role. The exact nature of this scrutiny, and the steps required before an SI completes its passage, is dependent on the type of SI. The Government remains confident of passing the necessary legislation required to ensure a functioning statute book by Exit Day.