Through this pernicious piece of legislation the Government seek to give themselves the power to scrap a whole host of legal protections that we currently enjoy, including hard-won employment rights and environmental protections. Through the Bill, a sunset provision will be placed on retained EU law, causing the vast majority of it to expire at the end of 2023. It could apply to more than 2,400 pieces of legislation. Indeed, reports suggest that the figure could be as high as 4,000.
The laws in question cover areas including environmental protection, food safety, civil aviation codes, health and safety in the workplace, employment law, parental leave, intellectual property, product safety, biosecurity, private pension protections, vehicle standards and noise pollution. The very idea that the Government should give themselves the power to discard such a large amount of legislation is shocking indeed. Decisions about UK law should be made in Parliament, not by Ministers. I therefore support amendment 36, which would require the Government to publish an exhaustive list of every piece of legislation being revoked under the sunset clause in the Bill and which would give the House of Commons the ultimate say on which legislation is affected. This would take power out of the hands of Ministers and provide transparency.
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The TUC has highlighted that rights that could be lost through the Bill include rights relating to holiday pay, agency workers, pregnant workers, maternity and parental leave and terms and conditions for workers whose employment is transferred to another employer, so I support amendments 19 and 20, which seek to safeguard protections for workers, because it is vital that we protect workers’ rights.
The Bill also puts environmental protections in peril, and I support amendments 21 and 22, which seek to address this. The Wildlife Trust has expressed profound concern that the Bill risks weakening vital protections for nature when more than ever we need stronger legislation and urgent action to reverse the decline in biodiversity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Greener UK and Wildlife and Countryside Link have expressed the opinion that the Bill will derail the Government’s nature and climate ambitions. The Government should be listening to these views from the sector, but clearly they are not. By their actions, the Conservatives are making a mockery of their own manifesto commitment that Britain would have
“the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on earth.”
It is extraordinary that the scope of the Bill includes giving Ministers the right to scrap a wide range of legal protections relating to health and safety, including the regulation of the safety of children’s toys and of electrical equipment and the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. I support amendments 24 and 25, which seek to safeguard these laws. Asbestos is an extremely dangerous substance and it is a matter of real concern that the Government might seek to water down control of it. I pay tribute to the work of the Merseyside Asbestos Victim Support Group and the wider support group forum for the vital work they do in supporting victims of asbestos. Previously, when I asked the Government whether they had made an assessment of the potential impact of this Bill on asbestos-related legislation, their response was vague and talked of removing disproportionate burdens for business and simplifying the regulatory landscape. That is a matter of real concern. I am extremely concerned about what deregulation could mean in relation to asbestos, and I ask the Minister today for a guarantee that controls on asbestos will not in any circumstances be weakened.
It is shocking that the report by the Regulatory Policy Committee gave the Government’s impact assessment of this Bill an overall red rating, meaning that the impact assessment is not fit for purpose because it has made no attempt to quantify the impacts of the individual pieces of legislation being sunsetted and no commitment has been made to do this later in the process. This Bill is an incredibly damaging piece of legislation that poses an enormous threat to many of the rights on which we rely. I urge Members to support the amendments that would remove the worst aspects of it, but ultimately I call on the Government to withdraw it.