Schedule of retained or revoked EU Law finally published

The Government has finally published a schedule of retained EU Law that will be revoked or sunset by 31 December 2023.  The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill allows the UK to take steps to reassert the sovereignty of Parliament. It ends the special status of retained EU law and will enable it to be more easily amended, revoked, or replaced.

As well as listing the law to be revoked there will also be a reason given. The government has already revoked or reformed over 1,000 EU laws since the UK left the EU and in addition to this list there is a further 600 which are proposed to be revoked directly through the above Bill.  The Financial Services and Markets Bill and the Procedure Bill will revoke around 500 further pieces of legislation.

Some areas of employment law affected include:

Working Time Regulations

The government will consult on three proposed changes; reducing record keeping requirements, permitting rolled up holiday pay and merging the basic and additional elements of annual leave into a single entitlement.

TUPE

The government will also consult on allowing employers to consult about TUPE transfers with employees directly, instead of through elected representatives which will be relevant to employers with fewer than 50 employees and where less than 10 staff are transferred.

Non-Compete Clauses

Non-compete clauses will have a maximum duration of three months which is hoped to boost the UK economy by encouraging innovation.

Employers will be able to prevent employees from competing during notice or garden leave.  There will be no restriction on the duration of non-solicitation covenants and the existing rules on what is reasonable to protect legitimate business interests will continue to apply.

These consultations will need to take place and primary legislation will be needed to make the changes to non-compete clauses so there is no timetable as yet for this to take place.

Employers may need to review employment contracts in light of these changes, especially those on non-compete clauses. If you would like to find out more about how your business could be affected, get in touch with our team today.