Expert Legal Comments on Today’s Queen’s Speech

At the heart of the Queen’s speech today were an array of proposed bills that prepare the UK for a smooth exit from the European Union. Of 27 bills, eight pertain directly to Brexit and its implications for key sectors.

There are bills to convert EU laws to UK laws and some measures on immigration, fisheries, trade, nuclear power, agriculture and sanctions.

Below Lawyer Monthly has heard several comments from some of the UK’s leading law firms.

Robert Rutherford, CEO of IT consultancy QuoStar, comments on the planned Data Protection Bill:

We welcome the increased – and essential – focus that the Government is placing on data protection and urge businesses to act now. Companies operating in the UK are already preparing to comply with the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation next year, and must now consider what additional compliance is required for this new bill.

Investment in both technology and resource will be crucial here, and preparation must not be left until the last minute. Firms must take steps now to understand the customer data held on their systems, and ensure that they have legal grounds to keep and share this information with third parties.

Tom Jones, Head of Policy at Thompsons Solicitors, comments on the planned Civil Liability Bill:

This is a desperate government looking for headlines. This will actually take money from the NHS and the Treasury and give it to hugely profitable insurers with no guarantee at all of any return to the consumer.

There is simply no evidence of a ‘compensation culture’: every government report has said it’s a perception, not a reality. The insurers have whipped up a ‘crisis’ whilst neglecting to mention that they have actually saved over £8bn since 2010.

In the last parliament consumers were going to get a £50 reduction in premiums, yet now we are told the figure will be closer to £35. Another bill, another made up figure. The only guarantee here is that hundreds of thousands of working people are going to have their rights diminished and their access to free legal representation taken away.

Charles Brasted, Partner at Hogan Lovells, comments on several of the planned bills:

The Government’s intended approach in the no-longer-Great Repeal Bill is confirmed in the Queen’s Speech – providing for continuity based on existing EU law by default as far as possible, and likely doing so en bloc rather than item by item.

The Repeal Bill will provide the domestic legal framework for Brexit and do much of the heavy lifting. However, the Queen’s Speech also promises (in accordance with the March White Paper) specific legislation on a number of issues arising from Brexit. These include immigration, nuclear energy (outside Euratom), privacy, agriculture and fisheries. This is far from a comprehensive list of the areas in which new national policy is likely to be needed in the next two years. That list will be a moving target as the negotiations develop.

The details we have of those issue-specific bills so far suggest that even these Bills are likely to be in large part enabling rather than prescriptive. This approach leaves options open to reflect to the sort of Brexit that emerges as negotiations go on.

The Customs and Trade Bills emphasise the centrality to the Government’s Brexit plans of leaving the EU Customs Union and Common Commercial Policy – but do not preclude a EU/UK agreement in these areas.

It is noteworthy that the Government’s plans for the Immigration Bill are described as “allowing for” the repeal of EU law on immigration, including free movement, that would otherwise be incorporated into UK law by the Repeal Bill. This perhaps deliberately raises the prospect that any such changes will come some time after Brexit.

These enabling or framework Bills may well confer powers on Ministers to develop the detail as secondary legislation. Parliament is likely to be more vociferous than ever in demanding scrutiny of substantial policy changes, a demand that will no doubt rub up against the increasing urgency of legislation as Brexit approaches.