Tag: Royal Assent

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EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill

EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill – Royal Assent

The EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill was passed to the House of Lords following its journey through the House of Commons.

The first Reading, in the House of Lords, was held on 9 January 2020, with the 2nd Reading on 13 January 2020. The Committee Stage was held on the 14-16 January 2020 during which numerous amendments were considered. The Report Stage was held over 20 and 21 January 2020 and the Bill was returned to the House of Commons with a number of suggested amendments.

The Bill entered its “Ping-Pong” stage. This is when the bill is sent back and forth between the House of Commons and the House of Lords as they try to resolve disagreements about the final text of the Bill.

The Government had previously indicated that they would reject any amendments to the Bill and this proved to be the case. Because the Government has a large majority, votes rejected the suggested 5 amendments and the Bill was returned to the House of Lords.

The Lords withdrew their amendments and the Bill proceeded to Royal Assent.

All the different stages of the Bill can be found at

EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill – Stages

All Documents and details of the debates held can be found at

Bill documents — European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill 2019-20

Royal Assent to the Bill, which enshrines in law that the UK will leave the EU on Friday 31 January 2020, was granted with little fanfare and announced, on the 23 January 2020 in the House of Commons by the Deputy Speaker

I have to notify the House, in accordance with the Royal Assent Act 1967, that Her Majesty has signified her assent to the following Act:

European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020.

After the turmoil of almost 4 years since the EU Referendum was held, 2 General Elections and 3 different Prime Ministers the announcement was an anti-climax.

The UK will leave the EU at 11:00pm GMT on 31 January 2020 and enter a “transition period”, where effectively nothing changes, until 31 December 2020 (unless the period is extended). The period is supposed to minimise any disruption caused by the UK leaving the EU and the time will be used to determine the future relationship (including Trade) between the UK and the EU. It is hoped to agree a future Trade relationship during this time.

Categories
Legislation

EU Withdrawal Bill – Royal Assent

Today (June 26 2018) the EU (Withdrawal) Bill received Royal Assent from Her Majesty the Queen and became an Act of Parliament.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-eu-withdrawal-bill-receives-royal-assent

Statement from the Department for Exiting the European Union:

This historic Act will make sure the UK’s laws – entwined with over 40 years of EU law – continue to work from the day we leave, ensuring a smooth and orderly exit.

It does this by transferring EU law into UK law where appropriate and creating temporary powers to correct the laws that will no longer operate appropriately.

Now that the Act has become law, the Government can start to use the powers in the Act to prepare our statute book for our exit from the EU. Work on this will begin in the coming weeks as Departments start to lay the relevant secondary legislation in Parliament.

This marks the next essential step in ensuring that the UK is ready for life after we have left the European Union.

Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, David Davis said:

This is a landmark moment in our preparations for leaving the European Union.

The EU (Withdrawal) Act is a vital piece of legislation that will ensure we have a functioning statute book for exit.

Since the Bill was introduced in Parliament last year, MPs and peers have spent more than 250 hours debating its contents and more than 1,400 amendments have been tabled.

We will now begin the work of preparing our statute book, using the provisions in this Act, to ensure we are ready for any scenario, giving people and businesses the certainty they need.

In total, it’s expected that around 800 pieces of secondary legislation will be needed. As part of the first tranche to be laid, the Government will use powers in the Bill to repeal the European Union Act 2011 as agreed by Parliament.

Alongside this programme of secondary legislation, Departments are delivering on a further package of Bills which will deliver the more significant policy changes needed as a result of our exit from the EU.

Other References

An extensive collection of documents related to the Withdrawal Bill is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/information-about-the-withdrawal-bill

Topics covered include:

  • Bill Overview
  • Converting and preserving law
  • The correcting power
  • Power to implement the withdrawal agreement
  • Devolution
  • Charter of Fundamental Rights
  • Workers’ rights
  • Environmental protections
  • Consumer protections
  • Treaty Rights
  • The role of the Queens Printer
  • Glossary
  • Impact Assessment
  • Regulatory Policy Committee opinion
  • Equality Analysis
  • European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) memorandum
  • Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU: Right by Right Analysis
  • Equalities legislation and EU exit
  • Employment and EU exit
  • The Employment Rights (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 and The Employment Rights
  • The Employment Rights (Amendment) (EU Exit) (No. 2) Regulations 2018
  • EUWB Illustrative samples of statutory instruments
  • The Exotic Disease (Amendment) (England) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • The Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • The Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations and Non-Contractual Obligations (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • The Seal Products (Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • The Harbours, Highways, Merchant Shipping and Other Transport (Environmental Protection) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • The Timber and Timber Products (Placing on the Market)(EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • The European Communities (Designation Orders) (Revocation) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • Short note on the Draft Statutory Instrument – The European Communities (Designation Orders) (Revocation) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • DExEU Note on the Draft Statutory Instrument: The European Union (Definition of Treaties Orders) (Revocation) (EU Exit) Regulation 2018
  • Draft Statutory Instrument – The European Union (Definition of Treaties Orders) (Revocation) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • Covering note on the Financial Regulators’ Powers (Technical Standards) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • Draft Statutory Instrument – Financial Regulators’ Powers (Technical Standards) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • Note on the Draft Statutory Instrument: The European Parliamentary Elections Etc. (Repeal, Revocation, Amendment and Saving Provisions) (United Kingdom and Gibraltar) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • Draft Statutory Instrument – The European Parliamentary Elections Etc. (Repeal, Revocation, Amendment and Saving Provisions) (United Kingdom and Gibraltar) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • Covering note on the draft The Design Right (Semiconductor Topographies) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
  • The Design Right (Semiconductor Topographies) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018
Categories
Brexit

Notification of Withdrawal Bill

As a result of the decision of the Supreme Court requiring Parliamentary approval to invoke Article 50, the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill 2016-17 was introduced to Parliament by David Davis on 26 January 2017.

https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2016-2017/0132/17132.pdf

Other documents can be found at

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/europeanunionnotificationofwithdrawal/documents.html

A briefing paper from the House of Commons Library is available at

Full Report: http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7884/CBP-7884.pdf

Summary: http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7884

The Bill is debated, first in the House of Commons and then in the House of Lords.

House of Commons

1st Reading

The Bill was presented to the House of Commons and given its 1st Reading on Thursday 26 January 2017. This stage is formal and takes place without debate.

2nd Reading

The 2nd Reading of the Bill took place over two days on 31 January and 01 February 2017 when MPs could debate the bill. Usually the second reading of a bill is conducted over a single day, but in this case, the time was extended over 2 days due to the importance of the bill. Parliamentary time was also extended to Midnight on the first day.

Jeremy Corbyn imposed a three-line whip on Labour MPs, directing them to vote for the Bill, because the Shadow Cabinet had agreed not to block Article 50. It is called a three-line whip because the instruction from the Labour Chief Whip is underlined three times, meaning MPs must vote as directed or risk being disciplined.

The Bill passed the 2nd Reading by 498 votes to 114 and proceeded to a Committee of the Whole House for consideration of possible amendments to the Bill.

Committee Stage

The Committee stage took place over 3 days 6th, 7th and 8th of February 2017

There were 175 Amendments to the Bill for consideration by MP’s. Details of these amendments are contained in the following documents:

Amendments – Monday 6th February

Amendments – Tuesday 7th February

Amendments – Wednesday 8th February

None of the amendments were accepted, following a number of votes, and the Bill was passed in its original form.

Report Stage and 3rd Reading

MPs approved the 3rd Reading of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill on Wednesday (evening) 8 February 2016 by 494 votes to 122, giving a majority of 372.

The Bill was passed to the House of Lords for further scrutiny, possible amendments, and vote.

House of Lords

1st Reading

The Bill passed the 1st reading in the House of Lords on 8 February 2017.

The House of Lords is in recess from 10 February to 20 February

2nd Reading

The 2nd reading of the Bill took place over 2 days, 20th and 21st February 2017.

The 2nd reading of the Bill was completed on 21 February.

Committee Stage

The committee stage of the Bill took place over 2 days 27 February 2017 and 01 March 2017. It was completed on 01 March 2017.

By a vote of 358 to 256, the following amendment was agreed:

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town moved amendment 9B, in clause 1, page 1, line 3, at end to insert:

“( ) Within three months of exercising the power under section 1(1), Ministers of the Crown must bring forward proposals to ensure that citizens of another European Union or European Economic Area country and their family members, who are legally resident in the United Kingdom on the day on which this Act is passed, continue to be treated in the same way with regards to their EU derived-rights and, in the case of residency, their potential to acquire such rights in the future.”

Report Stage and 3rd Reading

Following the Committee Stage, the Report Stage was held on 7 March 2017, the Bill was discussed in a number of sittings and Amendments were agreed.

This was followed by the 3rd reading of the Bill and after further debate, the Bill was returned to the House of Commons with amendments on 7 March 2017.

The suggested amendments are:

Ping Pong

In order for a Bill to become Law, both the House of Commons and the House of Lords must agree on the final wording in the Bill. If the House of Lords suggests amendments should be made, the Bill is passed back to the House of Commons for further debate, to consider those changes.

This process is known as “ping pong“. If the House of Commons agrees to the amendments the Bill passes on to the next stage, otherwise, the House of Commons can reject the amendments or make further changes/additions and pass the Bill back to the House of Lords for further debate. At this stage the House of Lords can accept what the Commons has decided, or offer further amendments and return it to the House of Commons. This process could continue indefinitely but can be limited by the time available for debate.

It is unlikely that the House of Lords will reject a Bill more than once, and the House of Commons has an option to use the Parliament Act to override (and ignore) amendments made by the House of Lords.

http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/parliamentacts/

The Bill was received back in the House of Commons and debated on 13 March 2017. Both amendments were rejected, Amendment 1 by 335 votes to 287 and Amendment 2 by 331 votes to 286, for the following reasons

The Commons disagree to Lords Amendment 1 for the following reason—

Because it is not a matter that needs to be dealt with in the Bill.

The Commons disagree to Lords Amendment 2 for the following reason—

Because it is not a matter that needs to be dealt with in the Bill.

The Bill was returned to the House of Lords.

After further debate, the House of Lords did not insist on their amendments and the Bill completed its journey through the Houses of Parliament on 13 March 2017.

Royal Assent

This stage is when the Queen formally agrees to make the Bill into an Act of Parliament and becomes Law.

The Bill was granted Royal Assent and announced by the Speaker in the House of Commons on 16 March 2017 who stated:

I have to notify the House, in accordance with the Royal Assent 1967, that her Majesty has signified her royal assent to the following acts: Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Act 2017, European Union (Notification of withdrawal) Act 2017.

The Prime Minister can now legally begin the formal process of leaving the EU by invoking Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (Lisbon Treaty).