The draft Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (Consequential Amendment) Regulations 2023, laid before Parliament on October 16, 2023, will implement certain aspects of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (which we discuss in our client note, "UK Government Publishes Brexit Freedoms Bill Setting Deadline for Revocation of EU Law"). The aim of the draft Regulations is to provide enhanced legal certainty in U.K. statutes.

The draft Regulations make provision for amending U.K. primary legislation (listed in the schedule to the draft Regulations) by replacing references to "retained EU law" with the term "assimilated law." This implements section 5 of the REUL Act, which provides that in-force REUL will become "assimilated law" or "assimilated case law" from January 1, 2024.

The effect of the draft Regulations is to abolish the principle of supremacy of EU law, under which EU law takes priority over U.K. law in the event of a conflict with domestic law. EU law will therefore no longer have supremacy over any domestic U.K. law, regardless of whether that law derived from the EU.

The REUL Act ends from the end of 2023 the application of the EU general principles as developed by the Court of Justice of the European Union in its case law. The draft Regulations will remove from U.K. primary legislation references to general principles of EU law.

The REUL Act revokes section 4 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 at the end of 2023. Section 4 of the EUWA provides that any remaining EU rights and obligations, such as directly effective rights, powers, liabilities, restrictions, remedies and procedures, continue to be recognised and available in U.K. domestic law. To provide legal certainty and clarity, the draft Regulations provide for references to that provision to be removed from U.K. primary legislation.

While the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 establishes a separate process for the revocation or replacement of financial services REUL than that provided for in the REUL Act, the draft Regulations implement these aspects of the REUL Act into primary legislation specific to the financial services industry. Changes are made to various legislation, including the FSM Act 2023, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the Banking Act 2009, the Financial Services Act 2012, the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 and the Financial Services Act 2021. We discuss the FSM Act in our client note, "A Boost for U.K. Financial Services."

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