Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will place in the Library a list of all the (a) affirmative and (b) negative statutory instruments exercising powers under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 which he plans to lay before Parliament in (i) 2018-19 and (ii) 2019-20.

Defra is currently preparing 91 statutory instruments (SIs) relating to the UK’s departure from the EU, in order to ensure continued operability of around 850 pieces of domestic or directly applicable EU legislation after our departure. Planning for these SIs is based on the assumption that they may all need to come into force from 29 March 2019 in a no deal scenario.

We are currently not in a position to publish a list of these SIs as it is still subject to change. We are still making a detailed assessment of the corrections required to make the law function appropriately on the day we leave the EU. The content of individual SIs is therefore still dependant on factors such as ongoing policy discussions with the devolved administrations, other Government departments’ legislation or policy decisions, statutory requirements to consult or business as usual legislation being in force first.

We have, however, already laid three SIs relating to the UK’s departure from the EU before the Sifting Committee on 24 July, which are as follows:

• The Seal Products (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

• The Animal Welfare (Amendment) (England) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

• The Timber, Timber Products and FLEGT (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

We are committed to delivering all of our SIs relating to the UK’s departure from the EU and ensuring a functioning statute book upon departure.