Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask Her Majesty's Government why they are producing statutory instruments relating to the possibility of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU on 29 March which include a number of policy areas consolidated in the instrument; and how they came to that decision.

All EU exit statutory instruments help provide certainty for businesses and the public by ensuring a functioning statute book when the UK leaves the EU. The majority are needed in either a deal or no deal scenario, as they will be deferred to the end of an implementation period if no longer needed on 29 March.

The Leader of the House of Commons and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union wrote to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee on 19 November updating the Committee on secondary legislation. They explained that in some cases, departments have combined measures to form coherent packages in order to aid public understanding. This letter was published in the Committee’s 43rd report of this session.

Departments continue to refine the drafting and policy content of each SI. All secondary legislation - not least that relating to exiting the EU - has to be accessible and usable. In some cases having a number of separate instruments that are closely related or cross-cutting would be to the detriment of that.