The UK is no longer a member of the European Union. EU legislation as it applied to the UK on 31 December 2020 became part of UK domestic legislation under the control of the UK’s Parliaments and Assemblies, and is published on legislation.gov.uk. It is being kept up to date on legislation.gov.uk in the same way as other forms of domestic legislation. The information below will help you understand what we have published, and how to find the legislation you need.
Legislation originating from the EU published on legislation.gov.uk covers a wide range of subjects, from trade to travel. Changes to these laws may affect your business, family or personal circumstances. If you are looking for government guidance on what you need to do in order to adapt to EU Exit you should visit gov.uk/transition.
Legislation originating from the European Union
Some types of EU legislation such as Regulations and Decisions, are directly applicable as law in EU Member States. This meant that when the UK was a Member State these types of legislation applied automatically in the UK, under section 2(1) of the European Communities Act 1972 (c. 68), without any further action required by the UK. These types of legislation are published by the Publications Office of the European Union on the EUR-Lex website. During the process of EU exit we captured this legislation from EUR-Lex and published it on legislation.gov.uk as ‘legislation originating from the EU’.
Other types of EU legislation, such as Directives, are indirectly applicable as law in EU Member States. This meant that when the UK was a Member State it made its own domestic legislation to give these laws force in the UK, often by making Statutory Instruments (rather than passing primary legislation). For example, The Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 (No. 1415) implemented the EU Directive on the re-use of public sector information (Directive (EC) No. 2003/98). UK legislation implementing EU law has always been published on legislation.gov.uk.
EU Exit Arrangements
The Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and the EU set out the arrangements for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU at 11.00 p.m. on 31 January 2020 (“exit day”). The withdrawal included a ‘transition’ or ‘implementation’ period, during which EU law continued to apply in the UK. The implementation period, which had effect in UK law by section 1 of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 (c. 1), expired at 11.00 p.m. on 31 December 2020 ("IP completion day"), by section 39 of the same Act.
EU legislation which applied directly or indirectly to the UK before 11.00 p.m. on 31 December 2020 was retained in UK law as a novel form of domestic legislation known as ‘retained EU legislation’. This is set out in sections 2 and 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16). Section 4 of the 2018 Act ensures that any remaining EU rights and obligations, including directly effective rights within EU treaties, continue to be recognised and available in domestic law after exit. After the end of 2023, ‘retained EU law’ became known as ‘assimilated law’, by section 5 of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (c. 28).
The European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020 (c. 29) implements the arrangements for the relationship between the UK and the EU after the implementation period, as agreed on 24 December 2020. These arrangements include the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the Agreement on Nuclear Cooperation and the Agreement on Security Procedures for Exchanging and Protecting Classified Information. The Act provides for the application of these, and any supplementary, agreements in domestic law. It also provides for the interpretation of domestic laws in light of these agreements.
Schedule 5 to The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16) requires us to publish EU legislation, including selected EU treaties and agreements, that were published by the EU up to 11.00 p.m. on 31 December 2020, a body of legislation of which retained direct EU legislation (now known as assimilated direct legislation) was a part.
This publishing duty lies with the King's Printer, who is the Chief Executive of The National Archives. The King's Printer's duties are being met in two ways: through legislation.gov.uk and through the EU Exit Web Archive.
legislation.gov.uk
Legislation.gov.uk is where you will find legislation required to be published under Schedule 5 to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16). We call this collection ‘Legislation Originating from the EU’. In this collection we have also published corrigenda (correction slips for EU legislation), EU Directives, selected Treaties and amendment information. Sometimes only original versions (as first adopted by the EU) are available. Wherever possible, though, we have also published versions of EU legislation as amended by the EU prior to 11.00 p.m. on 31 December 2020, with point-in-time versions to show how this legislation has changed over time.
EU Exit Web Archive
The EU Exit Web Archive is the comprehensive and official UK reference point for EU law as it stood at 11.00 p.m. on 31 December 2020. The collection comprises a wider selection of documents from EUR-Lex in English, French and German. It includes Treaties, legislative acts, the Official Journal of the European Union, case law and other supporting materials, and judgements of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Every item of legislation originating from the EU on legislation.gov.uk links to its versions on the EU Exit Web Archive. Versions held in the EU Exit Web Archive do not reflect any changes made after 11.00 p.m. on 31 December 2020, either by the EU, or by the UK.
Exemptions and Exceptions
Schedule 6 to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16) defines EU instruments that are exempt from the category of retained EU law (now known as assimilated law). Schedule 5 to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16) creates a power for Ministers to create an exception from the duty to publish, in the form of a Ministerial Direction. This can relate to a specific document, or to a category of instruments. When made, Ministerial Directions are published on legislation.gov.uk, and linked to the legislation that has been excepted.
Finding the right version of legislation originating from the EU
The Withdrawal Agreement makes provision for EU legislation to continue to have effect in the UK in certain limited circumstances. Sections 7A and 7B of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16) specify that EU legislation will continue to apply as it does in EU Member States, in relation to those rights, powers, liabilities, obligations and restrictions set out in the Withdrawal Agreement, as well as the EEA EFTA separation agreement and the Swiss citizens' rights agreement. This includes legislation which falls within the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Northern Ireland Protocol sets out the circumstances in which EU legislation may continue to apply in the UK in respect of Northern Ireland in order to maintain the necessary conditions for continued cooperation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and avoid a hard border. This is a complex area of law, and you should read the relevant legislation carefully.
If you are seeking legislation as it applies in relation to Northern Ireland, or any of the other scenarios which fall under the Withdrawal Agreement, you may need to refer to more than one version in order to get the full picture. Different versions can be found as follows:
- Legislation.gov.uk is where you can find legislation originating from the EU as it now applies in the UK. This legislation will be kept up to date with any amendments made by the UK Parliaments, Governments and Assemblies. For our editorial approach and timelines see Revising legislation originating from the EU.
- EUR-Lex is where you can find EU legislation as it applies to EU Member States, and as it may continue to apply to the UK under sections 7A or 7B of the Withdrawal Act. Legislation.gov.uk has not published any new EU legislation from EUR-Lex since 11.00 p.m. on 31 December 2020 nor has it referenced amendments made by the EU since then. Every item of legislation originating from the EU published on legislation.gov.uk has a link to its versions on EUR-Lex.
- EU Exit Web Archive is where you can find versions of EU legislation from EUR-Lex as they stood at 11.00 p.m. on 31 December 2020.
Revising legislation originating from the EU
Amendments to assimilated legislation by the UK’s Parliaments and Assemblies are treated by legislation.gov.uk in the same way as amendments to any other type of UK legislation. The amendments are published in Changes to Legislation as soon as possible. When brought into force, the amendments are carried out: revised versions of changed documents are created with point-in-time versions to show how they have changed over time.
However, over 140,000 amendments came into force at 11.00 p.m. on 31 December 2020, which is more than three times the annual number of legislative amendments normally generated by all types of UK legislation. We have identified and recorded these amendments and are incorporating them into the text of the affected legislation. Due to the high volume of changes made to legislation for EU Exit, this work will take longer than usual and our usual editorial practice and timescales will not apply.
Selecting legislation originating from the EU to publish on legislation.gov.uk
Our source for legislation originating from the EU was EUR-Lex, the official EU legislation website. We used EUR-Lex's CELEX sector classification scheme to identify the legislation specified by Schedule 5 to the European (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16), as amended by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 (c. 1). With the exception of four Treaties all documents were from sector 3 (legislation), sub-sectors R (Regulations), L (Directives) and D (Decisions).
When selecting which documents to publish in the legislation.gov.uk collection called ‘Legislation originating from the EU’ we applied the following rules:
- We only selected legislation that had an official EUR-Lex CELEX number and was available in English.
- We did not select unnumbered legislation.
- Where available, we have published revised versions of documents that incorporate amendments made over time. This is the default view when accessing documents on legislation.gov.uk.
- We have also published original 'as adopted' versions of documents. These are the original versions of the legislation as first passed and adopted by the EU with no subsequent changes/amendments.
- We have only published EU legislation that was publicly available in XML or PDF formats. Corrigenda are only available in PDF.
- Not all EU tertiary legislation as defined by section 20 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16) meets these criteria. Any EU tertiary legislation which is not available on legislation.gov.uk may be available on the EU Exit Web Archive.
Citation, Numbering and Search
To aid legal certainty, the Regulations, Decisions and Directives originating from the EU, as published on legislation.gov.uk, have the same year and number that they were assigned by the EU. For example, when searching for Council Regulation (EU) 2018/2056 of 6 December 2018 amending Regulation (EU) No 216/2013 on the electronic publication of the Official Journal of the European Union, select document type 'Regulations originating in the EU', and use '2018' as the year and '2056' as the number.
References to EU legislation within UK legislation are generally to be interpreted as referring to the versions of items of EU legislation as published on legislation.gov.uk unless clearly indicated otherwise.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act (Consequential Modification and Repeals and Revocations) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (No. 628) and The European Union Withdrawal (Consequential Modifications) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (No. 1447) make further provision for how references to EU legislation in UK legislation should be interpreted.
