Statutory Progress Reports to Parliament

The latest report, which covers the period 26 September – 25 December 2021, was laid in the UK Parliament in March 2022. The report states that:

The UK government has not sought to make use of the powers to apply retained EU law restrictions, reflecting the effective collaborative basis on which both the UK government and devolved governments have worked to develop and implement Common Frameworks. Significant progress has been made to establish Common Frameworks jointly with the devolved governments. 

The ‘freezing’ powers provided a contingent mechanism, if needed, to maintain existing ways of working while UK Common Frameworks were being developed. Since 31 January 2022, the powers to apply retained EU law restrictions cannot be used. The UK government laid a draft statutory instrument on 25 January 2022 to repeal those powers through the enabling power set out in section 12(9) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act.