Published: 23rd May 2023 We welcome many of the Lords’ amendments to the Retained EU Law Bill and urge MPs to retain the crucial safeguards which protect Parliamentary scrutiny and ensure executive power does not go unchecked. Read the full briefing However, while we support the attempts to mitigate the harsher effects of the powers in the Bill, we remain concerned that many vital rights and protections – including the right to equal pay – are still at risk of being amended by ministers by statutory instrument, therefore eluding scrutiny by Parliament. Additionally, the Bill’s broad delegated powers remain. Even subject to the checks proposed by the Lords, the Bill still grants significant powers to ministers to rewrite any item of Retained EU Law – including those now exempt from the sunset. Provisions which would create considerable legal uncertainty also remain. We urge the following recommendations (with numbers for Amendments referring to the revised list of 12 May): Sunset provisions: Preserve Amendment 2 to Clause 1, and Amendment 15 to Clause 4, in the name of Lord Anderson of Ipswich, so that only identified laws, approved by Parliament, are revoked. Delegated powers: Preserve Amendments 76, in the name of Lord Hope of Craighead, and 48, in the name of Lord Krebs. These constrain the exercise of the broad delegated powers in Clauses 13, 14 and 16 by, respectively, requiring sifting of regulations by a Joint Committee of both Houses, and by ensuring that replacements to retained EU law do not regress on environmental and food standards. Read the full briefing