Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, for what reason his policy of incorporating EU law into UK law excludes the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The UK has a longstanding tradition of ensuring our rights and liberties are protected domestically and of fulfilling our international human rights obligations. The Charter of Fundamental Rights (the Charter) only applies to Member States when acting within the scope of EU law. The Charter did not create any new rights. Instead it was intended to catalogue the rights that already existed in EU law, and the bill sets out how this underlying law is being converted into UK law at the point we exit the EU. Therefore it is no longer appropriate, nor will it make sense in the context of the UK's exit from the EU, to retain the Charter in UK law.