Published: 20th February 2019 Today PLP and 12 other civil society organisations have sent a letter to Stephen Barclay, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, drawing attention to the fact that the requirement for effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalty schemes in retained EU law is being removed by Statutory Instruments (“SIs”) being made under the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 as part of the process of withdrawing from the European Union. The removal of effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalty schemes is not noted in the accompany explanatory notes to the SIs, impeding effective scrutiny by Parliament and civil society. PLP’s SIFT Project noticed this trend in conjunction with other civil society organisations and has written to the Minister asking what the justification for this removal is. PLP’s work on this issue is part of our SIFT project which you can read more about here. PLP takes no position on the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. Our work around Brexit is intended to ensure that Parliament is appropriately sovereign and the executive held to account. We have drawn these changes to the Minister’s attention as part of our work to ensure that the powers under the EU (Withdrawal) Act are used appropriately. The letter can be downloaded and read in full here.