1. Executive summary

The retained EU law (REUL) bill received royal assent on 29 June 2023. Section 17 of the act requires the Secretary of State to report to parliament on REUL and assimilated law at 6-monthly intervals until 3 June 2026.

Under the legislation, the report must:

(a) provide a summary of the data on the assimilated law dashboard

(b) set out the ‘progress that has been made in revoking and reforming’ assimilated law during the reporting period to which the report relates

(c) set out His Majesty’s Government’s plans to revoke and reform assimilated law in subsequent reporting periods

To begin with, this report provides an update on the REUL and assimilated law dashboard. The dashboard provides the public with information on the amount of assimilated law (formerly known as REUL) and where it sits across departments. The dashboard was updated on 23 January 2025 and reflects the position as on 23 December 2024. Departments have undertaken further analysis and identified some additional pieces of assimilated law. There are now a total of 6,901 instruments of assimilated law concentrated over approximately 400 unique policy areas on the dashboard.

Since the previous update to the dashboard, 40 assimilated law instruments have either been revoked or reformed. As a result, 2,395 instruments have now been revoked or reformed in total.

The report then provides a list of revocations and reforms enacted during the reporting period (24 June to 23 December 2024). Since the publication of the last Assimilated Law Parliamentary Report, this government laid 2 statutory instruments (SIs) using powers under the REUL Act to amend assimilated law. This is detailed in the ‘Detailed list of revocations and reforms’ section of the main report. This government laid a further 9 SIs revoking and reforming assimilated law under other domestic legislation, including, for example, powers under the Medicines and Medical Devices Act 2021.

Examples of reforms to assimilated law supporting this government’s priorities made during this reporting period include the ‘Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) (Amendments) Regulations 2024’ and ‘The Medical Devices (Post-market surveillance requirements) (Amendment) (Great Britain) Regulations 2024’.

In terms of our plans for future use of the REUL Act powers, the government is committed to creating a pro-business environment with a regulatory framework that supports innovation, economic growth, investment, and high-quality jobs. We will reform assimilated law, where desirable, to deliver that vision and support the Industrial Strategy. Examples of such include the ‘Airports Slot Allocation (Alleviation of Usage Requirements etc.) Regulations 2025’.

We will continue to be guided by this government’s national missions and wider priorities, including our work to reset UK relations with the devolved governments and the EU, and milestones listed within the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change. The government will continue to update Parliament as to the detail of our plans for assimilated law.

Finally, the report details actions which have been taken to preserve so-called ‘section 4 rights’.