Vince Cable has announced a series of new principles that the Government will use when introducing European measures into UK law that aims to prevent UK businesses being put at a disadvantage compared to European competitors.
Key elements of the principles include starting work on implementing a European directive immediately after agreement is reached in Brussels, to give businesses more of an opportunity to influence the approach, as well as provide an early warning as to its impact. In addition directives will normally be directly copied into UK law unless this would adversely affect UK interests.
Ministers will be under a statutory duty to conduct a review of domestic legislation that implements European directives every five years, involving consultation with businesses to allow employers the chance to highlight any problems they have encountered.
It remains to be seen whether these principles will have any notable positive impact on employers.
