Introduction
The REUL and assimilated law dashboard provides the public with information about the amount of assimilated law there is, where it sits across UK government departments, and the actions taken to either reform, revoke or retain it.
It includes UK legislation which is reserved, and which has mixed competence or falls under devolved competence. However, it does not include any legislation made by the devolved governments or by the Scottish Parliament, Senedd or Northern Ireland Assembly.
Following a review of REUL by the previous government, the dashboard was first published in June 2022 and catalogued 2,417 individual pieces of REUL identified by UK government departments. Since then, additional REUL was identified, now amounting to 6,901 individual pieces. The dashboard was updated in January 2025 alongside the publication of the third Assimilated Law Parliamentary Report and remains a useful resource for tracking the ongoing status of assimilated law.
This 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. We will 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 the milestones listed within the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change.
Background
REUL was a type of domestic law, created by the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EUWA) and came into effect at the end of the UK’s post-Brexit transition period (which ended on 31 December 2020). The primary objective of REUL was to provide legal continuity and certainty at the end of the transition period.
On 29 June 2023 the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2023 received Royal Assent. Under the ‘REUL Act’, REUL which had not been revoked by the end of 2023 became “assimilated law”. Unlike REUL, assimilated law is not interpreted in line with EU principles of interpretation; these were removed from domestic law by the REUL Act with effect from 1 January 2024.
The dashboard was built using Observable via GitHub, with improved accessibility for all users. The dashboard now holds a total of 6,901 individual pieces of REUL, concentrated over 400 unique policy areas. New features may be added to the dashboard in due course.
Data Notes
The data set used to populate the dashboard is available to download at www.gov.uk/government/publications/retained-eu-law-dashboard.