Brexit: Lord David Frost outlines priorities for EU regulations bonfire
The UK has launched an official review into EU regulation that is still in place in the UK, with Lord David Frost announcing that red tape on things like port services, vehicles and data rights is set to be slashed.
Frost, the UK’s defacto Brexit minister, told the House of Lords that the UK had been bogged down by the EU’s “legislative sausage machine” and that “this government was elected to get Brexit done and change this situation and that’s what we intend to do”.
The government today formally responded to the Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (Tiggr) review on post-Brexit regulatory changes that was led by Tory MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith.
The taskforce called for the UK to pull out of the EU’s Solvency II regulations, which dictates how much capital that insurance firms must hold, and a series of other financial services regulations.
Duncan Smith also called for changes to allow pension funds to easier invest in high-risk, high-growth firms.
Frost today said these kind of measures were being looked at by the Treasury, but that a number of other suggested post-Brexit changes would be put forward by individual departments as a part of a “comprehensive review of retained EU law”.
A document released by the government today also said that it would soon help convert all paper shares into electronic form.
“Our intention is to eventually amend, to replace, to repeal all that retained EU law that is not right for the UK,” Frost said.
“That problem is a legislative problem and that solution is likely to be legislative.”
He said plans would soon be brought forward to replace “outdated EU vehicle standards and to unlock the full range of transport technologies” of the future.
This will include rolling out digital driving licenses and driving test certificates.
The EU’s GDPR data privacy laws are set to be replaced with a “more proportionate and less burdensome” regime, while the EU’s port services regulation is also set to go.
The Tiggr report also suggested a “two out, one in” rule to future regulation, which Frost said would be adopted.