It is here – the legislation setting out the legal framework for Boris Johnson’s proposed Brexit deal. The withdrawal agreement bill, or WAB, is 115 pages long, with an extra 126 pages of explanatory notes. It was published at 8pm on Monday, giving MPs 12 hours to digest details of the most notable constitutional change to the UK’s status in decades before the Commons resumes and they must cast their first votes on it. But what does it say?
Main purpose
As the explanatory notes say, the bill is intended to “implement, and make other provision in connection with, the agreement between the United Kingdom and the EU” over Brexit – it gives Johnson’s deal legal status.
Transition period
As long planned, this would last until the end of 2020. This can be extended by ministers for up to two more years. However, while such an extension would require the approval of parliament, the bill gives no provision for MPs to seek an extension – thus, if a no deal-type cliff edge loomed with the transition period ending, it would be harder for parliament to tackle this.
The new Brexit deal is essentially the old Brexit deal with a new chapter on the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and a few key tweaks to the political declaration. Here is a link to the full text.
The backstop is replaced
The backstop has essentially been replaced by a full stop whereby Northern Ireland remains aligned to the EU from the end of the transition period for at least four years. A change can only happen if it is voted on by the Stormont assembly.
Consent
Stormont will have a key role in future Brexit arrangements. And if there is cross-community support to remain aligned to the EU rather than the UK the consent will hold for eight years.
The arrangements in this deal will automatically kick in for a mandated four years if there is a breakdown in trade talks, so it remains a “backstop” but with a permanent tinge.
That four-year period will start at the end of December 2020.
Two months before the end of the four-year period, that is October 2024, Stormont will be asked to vote on whether to remain aligned to the EU in ways outlined by this deal or not.
Checks on border, ports and airports
Under the deal, the UK and the EU are “underlining their firm commitment to no customs and regulatory checks or controls and related physical infrastructure at the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland”.
Future trade deals
The EU and the UK will aim for a zero-tariff deal with unlimited quotas. The entire UK, including Northern Ireland, will be free to sign trade deals. The line in the political declaration that “the United Kingdom will consider aligning with union rules in relevant areas” in any future trade talks has been ditched.
Customs
Northern Ireland will remain legally in the UK customs territory but practically in the EU customs unions. There will therefore be no customs checks on the border but tariffs will be payable on certain commercial goods.
No customs duties will be payable on “personal property” being transited from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. That protects online shopping and all items bought for personal rather than commercial use.
Customs duties will be payable on goods imported from the UK for commercial use unless it can be demonstrated that the goods remain in Northern Ireland or are for personal use, as above.
A system of rebates will allow importers to be reimbursed.
West/east trade
The commitment to frictionless trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain is restated.
VAT
EU law on VAT will apply in Northern Ireland.
Single electricity market
The island of Ireland is considering a single market for electricity so homes in Northern Ireland can get their energy from a supplier in Northern Ireland or the republic. There were fears this could be disrupted by Brexit. Under the Johnson deal, the provisions of union law remain so nothing will change.
Level playing field
This guarantees that the UK will remain in line with EU conventions on climate, environment and workers rights in a future trade agreement.
Lisa O’Carroll Brexit correspondent
Rapid ratification
Normally international treaties – and this is such a treaty, under law – must be before parliament for at least 21 sitting days in order to be ratified. This minimum time period is laid down in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (Crag) of 2010. But this provision is lifted for the purpose of the WAB, to allow the 31 October deadline to be met.
Future relationship
MPs will be given some oversight of the aims for this and must first approve a “statement on objectives for the future relationship with the EU”.
Citizens’ rights
The bill lays out the rights of EU nationals, and others from EEA and Efta countries, and the Swiss. The one seemingly new provision is a new body called the independent monitoring authority, or IMA, for EU nationals to lodge complaints about their treatment at the hands of the government.
Workers’ rights
A key element of attempts by Johnson to tempt over Labour rebels into backing his deal, this bill sets out the already-announced principle that rights which currently come from EU law, such as the working time directive, will still have effect in UK law. In the longer term, the bill makes a somewhat vague statement of “non-regression” – that the position on workers’ rights at the end of the transition period will not be reduced in later laws. This might be enough to convince some Labour rebels, but it has not convinced the party leadership, nor trade unions.
Northern Ireland
There are numerous paragraphs in the bill setting out arrangements for Northern Ireland and the concession by Johnson that it would remain subject to the EU customs regime, a move which arguably won him the deal, but which lost him the support of the DUP. The explanatory notes say the bill “provides arrangements that ensure that the UK (including Northern Ireland) does not remain in a customs union with the European Union”. This might be officially true in law, if not completely in practice.
Divorce bill
Something that was such an object of hate to many Brexiters ends up being conceded amid blank legal language: “Any sum that is required to be paid to the EU or an EU entity to meet any obligation that the United Kingdom has by virtue of the withdrawal agreement is to be charged on and paid out of the consolidated fund or, if the Treasury so decides, the national loans fund.”
Legal copy-and-paste
Highlighting the sheer scale of Brexit, the bill allows for EU law to be retained under UK law, as needed, even at the end of the transition period.
