Exiting the EU: New Partnership

Wayne David Excerpts

Thursday 2nd February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davis]

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade has already been in touch with the most important countries to us—South Korea and others like it—and they all seem very keen both to maintain grandfather rights and to improve on the deals and make them much more tailored and specific to both our interests.

[Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab)]

The White Paper says that the great repeal Bill

“will preserve EU law where it stands at the moment before we leave the EU.”

The White Paper goes on to say that it foresees two pieces of primary legislation, but that:

“There will also be a programme of secondary legislation under the Great Repeal Bill to address deficiencies in the preserved law”.

What deficiencies does the Secretary of State have in mind?

[Mr Davis]

As the great repeal Bill will pass through European law—the acquis communautaire—in its original wording, it might refer to European institutions when it should refer to British institutions. For example, it might say that local government has to publish its procurement contracts in the Official Journal of the European Union, which would no longer be appropriate—it would be more appropriate to publish them on the Government website. Secondary legislation will be principally aimed at such technical concerns. Major areas of policy change will primarily be addressed in primary legislation, which is why we cited those two examples.