The Scottish Government have sent a letter to the UK Government repeating concerns about the Retained EU Law Bill and revised amendments.
The Scottish Ministers’ view is that the Bill should be withdrawn completely. However, in advance of the Lords committee stage, the Scottish Government has re-published a suite of amendments to alter its application to Scotland. These amendments were sent on 10 February via letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson, to the new Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Kemi Badenoch.
The correspondence and annexed amendments can be found online here.
The aim of the amendments is to reduce the risk of harm to law in devolved areas and respect the roles and responsibilities of the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament. In addition to re-publishing the 17 amendments proposed for the Commons, the Scottish Government have also published two additional amendments (amendments 18 and 19) relating to the powers in the Bill given to UK Ministers which would enable them to make changes to the devolved statute book. As a general point of principle, the Scottish Government would expect any changes to the devolved statute book to be made by the Scottish Ministers and not by UK Ministers.
