MPs may have to work Fridays and weekends to avoid legal cliff edge

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/28/mps-may-have-to-work-fridays-and-weekends-to-avoid-legal-cliff-edge-brexit

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MPs may be forced to work on Fridays, weekends and during the parliamentary recess as it has emerged that the government has passed only one-sixth of the secondary legislation needed to get Britain ready to avoid a legal cliff edge after Brexit.

With 60 days to go until 29 March, and just 30 of those working days, the government admits it is running out of time to get the necessary primary and secondary legislation through parliament by Brexit day.

Downing Street said for the first time it had begun planning for parliament to sit on Fridays, at weekends and at half-term so that it could meet the deadline – if, that is, Theresa May can get her Brexit deal approved in principle by MPs soon.

The prime minister’s spokesman said: “As a precautionary measure, we are in preliminary discussion about extending sitting times – but only if necessary.”

Some of the legislation is needed to avoid no-deal scenarios such as a lack of reciprocal healthcare for British pensioners in Spain. Other laws are needed for the transition period if a deal is agreed.

The principal piece of primary legislation is the EU withdrawal agreement bill, ratifying the exit treaty struck with the EU, which will have to pass through the Commons and Lords before 29 March and is expected to be the subject of scores of amendments from MPs.

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The government is also battling to get six other essential primary legislation bills through before 29 March, covering trade, immigration, financial services, agriculture, fisheries and international healthcare arrangements.

In addition there are 12,000 EU laws that apply in Britain that will need to be incorporated into domestic law, involving 600 statutory instruments, or secondary legislation.

The government has laid down 343 of the 600 planned statutory instruments (SIs) before parliament and completed 104, according to the Hansard Society statutory instrument tracker.

Each SI would normally take between six and eight weeks to get to parliament, says the Hansard Society, leaving the government in a perilous position with two months to go.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has laid down 89 SIs, more than any other government department, with the Treasury and the departments of business and transport responsible for 141 between them.

SIs are necessary to ensure there are no legal cliff edges if the UK quits the bloc without a deal. One laid down last week proposes to extend the planning permission for Manston airport in Kent so it can be used as an emergency lorry park until December 2020.

Another SI was recently drawn up after civil servants discovered that the gruesome images on cigarette and nicotine inhaling products were copyright of the EU. The government now has access to similar pictures from an Australian photo archive, which cigarette manufacturers must use after exit day.

No 10 has said not all of the six pieces of primary legislation will have to be passed by 29 March because some relate to measures that will not have to be introduced until the end of the implementation period.

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One deemed critical is the trade bill, which ensures the UK can maintain all 40 free-trade agreements struck between the EU and third countries, which would otherwise fall away on Brexit day.

The trade bill is currently before the Lords, where next month peers are expected to try to insert an amendment that would require the UK to stay in a customs union with the EU – a policy opposed by May. This would pose a threat to it getting it through on time as the Commons would strike it out if it was returned with such an amendment.

The healthcare (international arrangements) bill is critical to the health arrangements of the 190,000 British pensioners living in the EU who rely on NHS reimbursements for in-country care and the 50 million holidaymakers who carry the European health insurance card.