List of Disapplied EU SPS Laws (Northern Ireland)

The Windsor Framework includes an agreement between the EU and the UK, that will disapply a list of EU SPS rules to goods entering Northern Ireland in certain circumstances. I posted before about the Windsor Framework, more generally. The Windsor Framework amends the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol to the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement.

The disapplication list is found in Annex 1 to the Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on specific rules relating to the entry into Northern Ireland from other parts of the United Kingdom of certain consignments of retail goods, plants for planting, seed potatoes, machinery and certain vehicles operated for agricultural or forestry purposes, as well as non-commercial movements of certain pet animals into Northern Ireland.

The document is published as COM(2023) 124 final and Annex I is here. It is not yet law.

SPS is Sanitary and Phytosanitary.

The original Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol applied the same rules to agrifood trade between Cairnryan and Larne as between Holyhead and Dublin.

The Windsor Framework will set up a new “green lane” agrifood retail scheme. Part 2 of COM(2023) 124 final provides for the core elements of this “green lane” for agrifood retail movements to Northern Ireland. Part 2 is found here.

The “green lane” will allow traders moving agrifood goods to the final consumer in Northern Ireland to benefit from a unique set of arrangements that will enable an entire truck to move on the basis of a single certificate, without routine physical checks, and on the basis of UK food and drink safety standards.

The “green lane “ will be available to all such traders who are retailers, wholesalers, caterers, and persons providing food to public institutions like schools and hospitals.

Articles 4 and 5 (in Part 2) set out the requirements goods must meet in order to qualify for these unique arrangements. This includes products being prepacked and being made available only on the NI market for final consumers. The scheme is not limited to goods from Britain or the EU. Goods from the rest of the world can move under this scheme, either where they are processed in the UK, where they meet UK public health standards and pose no disease risk, or where disease risks exist and the UK has chosen to take the same approach to protecting against the same pests and diseases as the EU.

Products moved under the “green lane” scheme will be subject to UK and not EU rules for public health, marketing, organic, labelling, genetic modification, and drinks such as wines, spirits and mineral waters. Annex I sets out the list of EU rules that will be disapplied.

Product labelling will be introduced from October 2023 onwards.

Part 3 sets out the provisions for the movement of plants and plant products (other than seed potatoes) under the “green lane” scheme. These arrangements will be the same as those for plant movements within the UK.

Part 4 sets out the provisions for the movement of pets. Northern Ireland pet owners will therefore continue to move their pets to Ireland and the EU using the EU pet passport.

Article 11 removes the ban on movement of seed potatoes.

Cardinal Environment will identify the EU rules that will be disapplied for the “green lane” scheme, in Northern Ireland Registers & Checklists.

We will also highlight the disapplied EU rules in the REUL Deletion List which is supplied in every UK jurisdiction Registers & Checklists system.

REUL Bill Further Update (UK)

I refer readers to my earlier blog post of this morning. The Report Stage debate is ongoing at the House of Lords – a number of aspects are being clarified –

(1) The Schedule (Revocation Schedule) is the list of those items that will be removed from the statute book at the end of this year. The Clause introducing this Schedule and removing the sunset clause and its extension is not yet voted on, but it has already been amended by vote to ensure each item on the said Revocation Schedule is referred to the Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament for scrutiny, and if found to be a substantive deletion, is then debated on the floor of each House and if not approved for deletion, is then kept.

(2) All EU-era law will have its attribution context and it’s interpretative referencing to EU rights removed at the end of the year, regardless, so to that extent the sunset clause persists. Further amendment of this Clause 4 agreed by vote of the House of Lords will require the relevant minister to make a statement before the end of October 2023 to, as the case may be, each House of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru or the Northern Ireland Assembly, identifying any rights, powers, liabilities, obligations, restrictions, remedies or procedures that the relevant national authority has decided not to restate, reproduce or replace before the end of 2023 and that it wishes to be revoked at the end of 2023. In this manner, Parliament & devolved legislatures rather than the Executive would have final say on revocation of rights, powers & liabilities of remaining retained law (assimilated law) at end of 2023.

(3) Any EU-era law not listed in the Revocation Schedule will be assimilated. And this assimilated EU-era law will be able to be changed, modified, including having its title changed and will certainly undergo minor amendment to remove its attribution/interpretative context up to 23rd June 2026 (listed in other clauses to the Bill). This date is not sunsetted. But the intention (as stated by Lord Callanan for the Government) is that the principle and the policy covered by the assimilated EU-era document is kept.

I may amend this Post further online. If I do, the reader must return to check the online version, as it will not be posted out to inboxes.

REUL Bill Update (UK)

This Bill (in my blog before) is now before the House of Lords, today and on Wednesday, for its Report Stage (one of the last stages before Royal Assent).

The UK Government recently confirmed it would delete the 31st December 2023 sunset clause, and its extension date in 2026, except for a list of EU-era documents. This list is now published – it would be an inserted Schedule to the Bill.

Find here, the collated amendments to the Report Stage of the REUL Bill, including the contents of the proposed new Schedule (of deletions by 31st Dec 2023). Note: the UK Government (Lord Callanan) has also proposed to enable devolved governments to remove items from his proposed Schedule.

On this Schedule (list of deletions by 31st Dec 2023) – (assuming Royal Assent of the list as is) –

(1) Removal of Annex 8 to the UK CLP document – here is a link to EU ECHA on the purpose of Annex 8. The UK CLP document is a version of the EU-era CLP (Classification, Labelling and Packaging) Regulation.

(2) Deletion of recent changes to Annex 1 of the EU-era PIC Regulation – a 2019 local instrument made changes to Annex 1 but these are not showing on the legislation dot gov dot uk website, and so we will need to produce a Cardinal Environment text consolidation for this PIC document. Annex 1 lists the chemicals covered by the EU-era PIC Regulation.

(3) Deletion of various EU-era instruments regulating establishing standardised application information when GMOs are to be deliberately released to the market or the environment. The UK now has a Precision Breeding Act regulating PBOs (Precision Bred Organisms) as distinct from GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). Under the new Act, the developer no longer “applies” but “notifies”. But developers still must “apply” under EU-era rules for the deliberate release of GMOs into the market/into the environment. It would appear DEFRA intends (by deleting the EU-era rules in this area) to change this to a “notification” process. The GMO register (of genetic modifications in GMOs) being lost in the REUL deletion process would be replaced by the PBO register under the Act. PBOs and GMOs would seemingly co-exist, in regulation terms.

The above would need to be achieved by issue of Statutory Instrument. Hopefully, further information will be available at that point.

We will amend the REUL List showing on client systems. and we will change the colour coding. However, we will retain the REUL List as a whole, since changes may occur to these EU-era rules over time, but not subject to a deadline.

Also note – the UK Government made two additional announcements (at the time of announcing the removal of the 31st Dec 2023 sunset deadline and it’s extension) –

(A) (EU-era) Working Time Regulations – these would be amended a bit, but the 48 hour week would be retained and also the combined leave provisions would still exceed the minimum in the EU.

(B) (EU-era) TUPE Regulations – these would be adjusted a bit. These rules are outside our remit.