This report charts the UK’s regulatory journey over the last five years and the path ahead. It finds that the UK has made very little use of its “Brexit freedoms” to diverge from EU law since 2021, and that the Labour government is now pursuing ‘alignment’ with EU rules in many areas in an attempt to remove some of the trade frictions caused by Brexit.
The first half of the report is comprised of thematic chapters which gauge the scale of divergence across a range of sectors and ask why, in many cases, it has fallen short of early promises. The second then considers the challenges the Labour government will face as it embarks on its agenda of closer regulatory alignment.
Tech and AI – Neil Ross
Financial Services – Sarah Hall
Employment law – Catherine Barnard
Climate and environment – Michael Nicholson
Product regulations – Joël Reland
Medicines – Mark Dayan and Tamara Hervey
Dynamic alignment – Holger Hestermeyer
Voluntary alignment – Joël Reland
Parliamentary scrutiny – Jill Rutter
Devolved powers – Alex Walker
Northern Ireland and the Windsor Framework – David Phinnemore
Norway’s relationship with the EU – Nick Sitter and Ulf Sverdup
Geopolitics and regulation – Anand Menon