Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill receives Royal Assent

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 makes provision for major changes to the content and operation of retained EU law and to rules of priority and interpretation. These changes will leave the meaning of some UK law (including Acts of Parliament) uncertain until resolved by the courts under the new rules. 

Royal Assent was received on June 29, 2023, and while much of the Act is now in force, many of the changes will not take place until the end of 2023. The “sunset” provision in the original Bill has been removed, under which certain EU-derived legislation would have been automatically revoked at the end of 2023 unless explicitly saved. While no pensions law is due to be revoked in this first wave, the Government intends to continue to review the remaining EU-derived law to identify further opportunities for reform.

However, the Act does remove the compulsion for Government departments to implement EU case law that was decided before December 30, 2020. This means that many EU pensions decisions will be revoked unless Government specifically makes “restating” regulations to retain them before the end of 2023. 

Several EU decisions affect the levels of PPF compensation available, although in a recent House of Lords debate, the Government said that it intended to retain the Hampshire judgment which provides that members should not receive less than 50 per cent of their accrued pension.

If restating regulations are not made in respect of the Walker (equalisation of same-sex survivor benefits accrued prior to 2005) and Allonby (GMP equalisation) and Barber (retirement age equalisation) considerable uncertainty will arise.