Brexit and Prorogation re-visited - the implications for financial services "in flight" legislation
The second - and, hopefully this time , legally effective - prorogation of Parliament took place on 8th October 2019 , in preparation for the Queen's Speech due to take place on Monday 14th October 2019.
As a result a number of Government Bills fell away and it is unclear whether they will be re-instated by the UK Government for consideration in the next session of Parliament to be opened by the forthcoming Queen's Speech on 14th October.
Five important Brexit-related Government Bills in particular were lost by the Prorogation - the Agriculture Bill, Fisheries Bill, Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill, Trade Bill and, most significantly for this Blog, the Financial Services ( Implementation of Legislation) Bill.
All these Bills were intended to deal with areas of law which the Government originally felt could not legally be covered by subordinate legislation made under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ,dealing with the transposition into English law of " retained EU law" by that Act.
The Financial Services (Implementation of Legislation) Bill covered the area of "in flight" financial services legislation - specified EU legislation which has been adopted by the EU but not in force as at the Brexit date (currently, 31st October 2019, 11pm UK time) or which is adopted by the EU within two years of Brexit. "In flight" is the phrase used in UK Parliamentary debates about the Bill - meaning the pipeline EU legislation or proposals that were listed in the text of the draft UK Bill itself and so were quite specific.
It is reported that the ( minority) UK Government did not press too hard to have the five above-mentioned Bills enacted for fear of being defeated on amendments to the Bills that might have been proposed by a recalcitrant ( majority) Opposition.
Whatever the explanation, the UK Government is putting a brave face on its predicament by asserting that all the primary legislation needed for the UK to leave the EU on Brexit day is now in place. They may be counting on winning a General Election in the very near future and effectively coming back with majority support to push through all the additional Brexit-related legislation that they might wish for in the new post - General Election Parliament.
This is a tough time for the UK Government and for all those understandably worried or at the very least fed up with the circumambulations of the Brexit saga but it is a golden time for constitutional lawyers and students of the British constitution, who frankly have rarely had it so good.
The shades of great British constitutional lawyers such as Sir Edward Coke and Sir William Blackstone must be watching with interest ...or with bemusement.
