IPEM submission on proposed changes to EU law

A SUBMISSION has been made to a House of Commons committee by IPEM on proposed changes to EU legislation under UK law.

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill is currently passing through Parliament and the Public Bill Committee is examining it.

The Bill would completely overhaul a body of UK domestic law known as “retained EU law” (REUL), which was created by the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended by the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 and came into existence at the end of the post-Brexit transition period at the end of 2020.

The Bill, most notably, would:

• Place a “sunset” on REUL – causing most, but not all, of it to expire at the end of 2023
• Enable, via statutory instrument, most REUL (if it takes the form of legislative instruments) to be exempted from the sunset
• Enable the “sunset” to be postponed (for some but not all REUL) until as late as 23 June 2026, via statutory instrument
• Formally abolish, for wholly domestic law purposes, the principle of supremacy and other general principles of EU law after 2023

Patient, public and employee safety

IPEM’s submission was made after the committee issued a call for written evidence and was based on the potential impact any changes could have on patient, public and employee safety.

Several Special Interest Groups, including Clinical and Scientific Computing, Diagnostic Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Radiation Protection, and Ultrasound and Non-ionising Radiation, contributed to the response.

The points made focused on the number of individual pieces of legislation (more than 2,400) being reviewed and raised concerns about the amount of government resources available to examine them. Other points raised included:

• The potential for uncertainty to be introduced in the regulatory framework of the UK
• Some EU Directives have already been transposed into UK legislation, including the Ionising Radiation Regulations and the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations

Dr Robert Farley, IPEM’s President, said: ‘I am pleased our various Special Interest Groups have been able to contribute to what is an important review of legislation.

‘The points raised by our members are to ensure patient, public and employee safety across healthcare settings.’

IPEM will publish the full consultation response once the evidence has been published by the Public Bill Committee.