Access to EU Law REMINDER (Britain)

I am reminding you – Cardinal Environment Limited EHS Legislation Registers & Checklists applicable in Britain, and the variants of Britain (England, Wales and Scotland), still have access to EU Law.

Up to date EU Law (as applies in France and Ireland) is found on the top left hand side as a look up List. In both OHS and ENV.

As Retained EU Law is removed from the statute book in Britain, manufacturers and distributors will be operating the two systems – the British system and the EU system. So we will keep Access to EU Law on going on British Registers & Checklists.

Any questions, and you are a current subscriber to Cardinal Environment EHS Legislation Registers and Checklists, please email them to me.

Obviously, subscribers to Registers and Checklists in Ireland, France and other EU and EEA (for example Norway) have EU Law inserted into the Registers and Checklists as standard, and not simply a look up list.

I will continue to post about changes and developments to EU Law on this Blog. So followers of Blog will have this heads-up.

EU Law developments will not appear in British Email Alerts, however. They will appear in Email Alerts for Ireland, France etc.

If anything is unclear, and you are a subscriber to our Registers & Checklists, email me. Replies to this Blog itself will not be addressed, and most likely won’t be published.

EU Law Revocation (Britain) UPDATE

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (I posted about recently) is in Committee stage, and the Public Bill Committee (the relevant Committee) yesterday has asked for submissions to it – here.

You can see from the link, the purpose of the Bill is to sunset (remove from the statute book) certain types of law by end 2023. In particular, the Bill will completely overhaul a body of UK domestic law known as “retained EU law” (REUL). This is a category of law that came into being as a result of the UK exit from the EU. It includes both Retained EU instruments, and certain domestic laws that gain their authority in a particular way.

Note: when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Tuesday 22 November.

As I have written in the last Email Alert to clients, we will commence listing the laws to be affected shortly, and this list will display on Cardinal Environment Limited EHS Legislation Registers and Checklists from Jan 2023 (earlier drafts will display earlier) and be subject to tracking through 2023.

A very considerable number of laws will be affected.

We expect most affected laws to be replaced with new laws, covering the same obligations. The tracking evident on Legislation Registers and Checklists will identify progress.

We do not expect that obligations will be removed altogether. If a law is removed without a replacement, we expect the obligations to be inserted by amendment into other pre-existing law, and the tracking will identify this.

Nonetheless, this is a complex process.

EU Law Revocation (Britain)

Yesterday 22 September ’22, the UK government introduced its bill to revoke and reform en masse (by 31 Dec 2023) retained EU law and domestic subordinate law documents (statutory instruments – Regulations) that draw their power from sections of the 1972 European Communities Act (specifically section 2(2) or paragraph 1A of Schedule 2).

The revocation and reform bill is here.

I will be outlining in the next (September) Email Alert how we will deal with this in Cardinal Environment EHS Legislation Registers & Checklists (Britain, England, Wales and Scotland).

Re OHS – the impact will be felt on Equipment Regulations (not LOLER), and Product Regulations (including obviously UK REACH and safety data sheets). Also the Working Time Regulations.

But Equipment Use Regulations, COSHH, DSEAR, Carriage of Dangerous Goods, the Management Regulations and the Workplace Regulations will be unaffected.

Re ENV – the impact will be substantial in Waste. Also EIA and Habitats and Species Regulations will be re-written (I had already written about this in the blog). Note the Office for Environmental Protection (England) has an investigation underway into the EIA, SEA and Habitats Regulations. This link gives access to written evidence to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill Committee, which gives further information.

ODS and F-Gas similarly will require new domestic law.

31st December 2023 is the sunset date written into the Bill.

We will set up a document tracking list, with traffic light colours, as we did with the Brexit law changes that operated from 1st Jan 2021 (the Brexit Consolidated Law list).

It is expected that the relevant government departments will commence review of each affected instrument, and that “reformed” domestic law will be enacted. The new document tracking list will identify progress, to customers of our Cardinal Environment EHS Legislation Registers & Checklists. The Email Alerts will Alert of enactment of new instruments.

This is a complex area. If there are further developments, for example to the sunset date, then I will issue further blog posts.

The EU Law revocation extends to all parts of Britain, but ENV legislation is delegated, so variations might emerge (particularly on timescales).

If you have questions, and you are a client, please send your questions to me by email. Questions asked on this blog post will not be answered.

The above is NOT a full description of the instruments affected. Clients will have the document tracking list inserted in their systems in Jan 2023. The specifics of how we will handle this will be in the September Email Alert (as mentioned above).

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Update on 1st Jan Registers (Our Services)

1st Jan Cardinal Environment EHS Registers & Law Checklists are rolling out, but last minute law changes on the UK aside is hampering progress.

GB (Britain, Britain Offshore, England, Wales, Scotland) ENV is rolling out first – Brexit changes :

(1) Air – F-gas and ODS regulations are back to yellow on the Brexit Consolidated Law List (due to late UK laws), having been stable hitherto, we will get these back to green shortly

(2) Energy – UK ETS law makes use of 2x 2018 EU texts and 2x 2019 EU texts, late UK document amends all 4 EU texts and UK ETS law

(3) Hazardous Substances – further UK law amends both UK REACH and GB CLP

(4) Waste – late decision to use EU waste code list (with amends) reverses earlier removal of the EU text from Registers

Late amendment to Waste Transhipment changes it to Waste International Shipment and puts it ahead of EU Transhipment, but we have completed the law consolidation

We are working to complete the roll out of the 1st Jan GB ENV Registers & Checklists by Monday – these will roll out without live links to –

* UK ETS 4x EU texts (refer to Brexit Consolidated Law List for status), but with local law updated

* UK REACH and GB CLP texts (refer to Brexit Consolidated Law List for status), but with local law updated

Any questions, please email me.

Happy New Year!

Here we go, 1st Jan 2021, and the start of the new rules for EU-UK trade.

(new 1st Jan) GB Cardinal Environment EHS Registers & Checklists (ENV) are being uploaded in alphabetical order, some have already been uploaded, uploading is taking place today, and will take a further 5-7 calendar days to complete. Any questions, please email me.

Northern Ireland Cardinal Environment EHS Registers & Checklists (ENV) will be next.

The December Email Alert will be issued on Monday 4th Jan, so look out for it in your inboxes on that day.

A couple of new items to note :

(1) the UK government issued a 31st Dec update (159 pages with worked examples) to its border model – here.

(2) the UK government issued a 3 month temporary approach to sending parcels to Northern Ireland from Britain – here.

(3) the UK government issued an unofficial list of waste codes for international shipping (note the List of Waste codes for domestic movement is found in WM3) – here.

(4) the UK government updated more of its guidance (notably data) to incorporate the EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement – the Brexit Guidance List in Cardinal Environment EHS Registers & Checklists.

(5) Stena, who manage Holyhead port, report they turned away 6 freight lorries carrying goods to Ireland so far this morning because the Ireland-required Pre-boarding Notification (PBN) had not been completed – this Blog does not focus on customs – the Irish Revenue link is here.

EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement (UK & EU)

UPDATE (2) : the legal text is also published on the EU website – here. Note the Q&A here.

UPDATE : the legal text is also published by the UK (1,246 pages) – note the page numbering is slightly different to the EU 1,256 pages (corrected to 1,236 pages) document – here.

The legal text is now circulating – it is here (1,256 pages, corrected to 1,246 pages)

Marked Page 202 has the start of the chapter on Labour and social standards

Marked Page 203 has the start of the chapter on Environment and climate

Marked Page 206 has the start of the chapter on Other instruments for trade and sustainable development

Marked Page 214 has the start of the chapter on Horizontal and institutional provisions (this chapter deals with the Panels of Experts, and rebalancing)

Note (marked Page 216) : The Trade Specialised Committee on Level Playing Field for Open and Fair Competition and Sustainable Development shall monitor the follow-up to the report of the panel of experts. The domestic advisory groups of the Parties established under Article INST.7 [Domestic advisory groups] may submit observations to the Trade Specialised Committee on Level Playing Field for Open and Fair Competition and Sustainable Development in that regard.

The above chapters do NOT appear in the Table of Contents, they are located within Title XI (this starts on marked Page 181 of the Heading One on Trade (of Part Two).

Please read the chapters identified above.

The text envisages the UK creates its own legal acquis, and that this will be separate from the EU acquis.

Impact for Cardinal Environment EHS Legislation Registers & Checklists

GB Registers & Checklists Systems (Britain, Britain Offshore, England, Wales, Scotland) – these will be reordered,

* EU Law (applying in EU27 and EEA) will be relocated beneath Regulatory Guidance

* International Law (the UK has ratified) will be supplied first

* Retained EU Law (legal text with Brexit corrections) will be supplied next (find this Law in Brexit Consolidated Law List already supplied on systems – the coloured project list ongoing since July 2019)

* Domestic Law (legal text with Brexit corrections – the Brexit Consolidated Law List)

ENV will be first, the Brexit Consolidated Law project is finished for most ENV – we expect to hit close to 1st Jan for the new Registers & Checklists.

OHS will be supplied after Q1 of 2021 – in the meantime, the Transition Period System will display AND the Brexit Consolidated Law List AND the Brexit Guidance List.

Find the practical instructions in the rewritten Summaries and Law Checklists which will link to the Brexit Guidance List.

Northern Ireland Registers & Checklists – these will NOT be reordered, they WILL contain Brexit amended domestic law (Brexit Consolidated Law List)

Republic of Ireland Registers & Checklists – unchanged

EU27 Registers & Checklists – unchanged

Norway Registers & Checklists – unchanged

Cardinal Environment Limited (office address)

As of 5pm today, 15 June, Cardinal Environment Limited has a new office address as shown below :

International Centre for HSE Regulatory Analysis

Regus Watford

1st Floor, Building 2, Croxley Business Park

Watford, Hertfordshire

WD18 8YA, United Kingdom

[all other contact details remain the same]

An Email Alert will be sent out.

COVID-19 Restrictions Changes (UK)

In the past days, a number of UK jurisdictions have changed their Restrictions law. This is in order to relax some of the lockdown measures.

The new amendments will be loaded today into the COVID-19 Law List in Cardinal Environment EHS Legislation Registers & Checklists – the COVID-19 Law List is found on the top right accessed from the OHS topic page. [UK and Ireland systems]

As this emergency situation continues, we will be bringing forward COVID-19 Law Checklists (UK jurisdictions). I will advise nearer the time when these will be available.

‘WTO’ standards and regulations (WTO)

The WTO is the World Trade Organisation, based in Geneva, dating from 1994. Individual countries are members, and the EU, and three ‘customs territories’ of China.

This document gives a useful account of ‘trading on WTO terms’ and ‘WTO rules’ – here.

If a trade deal is not signed with the EU to take effect 1st January 2021, then the UK and the EU will trade with one another on WTO terms, the WTO rules already applying.

In the WTO, countries are free to choose the standards and regulations they adopt, with some conditions. They are encouraged to use internationally recognised standards. Or they can set their own provided they can justify the standards with scientific evidence and risk assessment. The purpose is to ensure the standards are genuine, not arbitrary or an excuse to be protectionist. [extract from the further information below link]

Further information about ‘WTO’ standards and regulations is set out – here.

We (Cardinal Environment) will (for 1st Jan 2021) add the relevant international standards and regulations to the EHS Legislation Registers & Checklists (UK systems).