Staff cuts of up to 40%, “poor planning and preparation” and losing access to EU data sharing and cooperation have left UK regulatory agencies struggling to cope with life outside the EU, according to a new report by UK lawmakers.
The ‘Regulating After EU Exit’ report published on Wednesday (12 October) by the UK parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has expressed concern UK regulators are “struggling to recruit and retain the skills they need to regulate effectively” in their new and expanded roles post-Brexit.
Progress on developing long-term regulatory strategies following the UK’s exit from the EU has been slow, and the future direction of UK regulation still unclear.
As part of its departure from the EU and the single market, the UK rejected the idea of remaining party to the EU’s regulatory agencies in favour of establishing its own domestic regulatory regime.
However, the committee pointed to examples of slow preparedness, with the caveat that UK officials had “taken steps to increase their international influence and engagement.”
For example, the unit tasked with providing advice on government subsidies will only become operational in the coming weeks, more than two years after Brexit, while the UK’s Food Standards Agency will not apply full import checks on high-risk food imported from the EU until the end of 2023.
On leaving the EU, the regulators lost access to EU data sharing and cooperation arrangements. The committee report points out that the UK’s Health and Safety Executive no longer has access to the chemical safety data underpinning the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations, and that the chemicals industry has estimated that replicating this data for the UK will cost £800 million.
“Poor preparation and planning have combined with international political realities and the result is exposure of UK consumers and businesses to greater risks and costs,” said Dame Meg Hillier, the MP who chairs the Public Accounts committee.
The promise of using Brexit to slash red tape on businesses was a key demand of Brexiteers both during and after the 2016 referendum campaign.
Liz Truss’s government is expected to fast-track its so-called Brexit Freedoms Bill, aiming to repeal or assimilate all retained EU law and abolish the principle of the supremacy of EU law in the UK by the end of 2023. Ministers are also expected to outline plans to introduce lighter-touch regulation in a range of sectors in the coming months as part of a promise to reduce the regulatory burden facing businesses.
The report warns that there are particular shortages of vets to monitor food safety and animal welfare in abattoirs and toxicologists to assess food risks and chemical safety, and lawyers and economists to enforce competition law.
Meanwhile, as part of the UK government’s most recent Spending Review in 2021, all domestic regulatory agencies have been instructed to reduce staff numbers by between 20-40%. Should these staff cuts be forced through, the report warns that this will “make the current regulatory models unsustainable” without “legislative change and fundamental reform.”
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
Source: euractiv.com
