back to article Brexit has left a regulatory black hole for digital, say MPs

Brexit has left the UK peering into a digital regulatory void, according to MPs. The government must provide greater clarity on digital regulation and ensure it stays on track in light of the EU referendum result, the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee finds in a report published today (PDF). Issues that …

  1. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Trollface

    Iain Wright MP, chair of the BIS committee, urged the government to set out its plans

    "Chaps, we're rumbled. We can't copy and paste stuff from Brussels any more, we've got to actually work this stuff out."

    1. P. Lee

      Re: Iain Wright MP, chair of the BIS committee, urged the government to set out its plans

      >We can't copy and paste stuff from Brussels any more

      Actually they probably can, and should, until there is a good reason not to and the capacity to get things together.

      Brexit doesn't mean you *have* to reject everything from Brussels.

      1. Doctor_Wibble
        Devil

        Re: Iain Wright MP, chair of the BIS committee, urged the government to set out its plans

        > Brexit doesn't mean you *have* to reject everything from Brussels.

        *splutter*

        I'm going to take a punt that this DEFA* will merely be the first of many sequels so if they are to retain any credibility they need to emulate the games industry, and have this one as DEFA, to be followed by DEFA2017, DEFA2018 etc and this will ensure proper government interference is kept up to date as much as possible.

        .

        * D.E.F.A. - the F stands for 'fckng-up' because there will always be some honourable member along the way who makes sure their sponsor get a special bit sneaked in to one of the more obscure sections, or just somehow accidentally misses out the semi-colon that makes it a requirement for us to file our annual browsing history along with our tax returns.

      2. H in The Hague

        Re: Iain Wright MP, chair of the BIS committee, urged the government to set out its plans

        "Actually they probably can, and should, until there is a good reason not to and the capacity to get things together."

        Seconded.

        Unfortunately some bright spark in Whitehall (either an MP or one of those "faceless, unelected bureaucrats") will probably want to give a UK twist to the regulations. Consequently, any UK company with customers in the EU may have to comply with two lots of regs.

  2. Unep Eurobats
    Trollface

    So the trouble with taking back control

    ... is that somebody actually has to do some controlling.

    1. John Lilburne

      Re: So the trouble with taking back control

      ... and a wad of the money they think that they'll get back will be spent on shadow administration, buildings, equipment, workforce, red-tape, and home grown fuck ups.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: So the trouble with taking back control

        "... and a wad of the money they think that they'll get back will be spent on shadow administration, buildings, equipment, workforce, red-tape, and home grown fuck ups."

        It has yet to be seen whether Brexit will end up with a reduction in UK government income that will wipe out the saving of not sending money to the EU any more. (I'm trying to remain open minded about this:- For the record, I voted remain.)

        I don't believe that BRexit will end up with a noticeable increase in taxation to cover red tape for the UK government, because we already have UK government departments trying to ensure compliance with existing EU and UK law, and their purpose will not change, although the laws they are enforcing may change.

        *However*, Brexit could mean that most (all?) large businesses will have to have separate companies serving the EU and the UK, leaving the UK arm of each company to carry the cost of complying with UK specific laws.

        Therefore hypothetical "Product X" which is available in the EU may need to be tweaked to comply with UK laws, leading to a cost increase for the UK version compared with the EU version. If UK law diverges too much from EU law, some niche products might not be adapted to meet UK regulations and therefore won't be available, but that shouldn't happen for a long time unless the UK government goes on a massive law-making spree as soon as Brexit occurs.

        The big problem for the UK government is going to be justifying to the electorate the necessity of keeping the vast majority of EU derived laws in place whether or not we make it into the single market.

        1. codejunky Silver badge

          Re: So the trouble with taking back control

          @AC

          "Therefore hypothetical "Product X" which is available in the EU may need to be tweaked to comply with UK laws, leading to a cost increase for the UK version compared with the EU version."

          Possibly but this was one of the better arguments for brexit, the EU laws are shockingly specific. The curve of a banana comes under criminal law which is the opposite of how we have worked as a country. So it could be easier to comply with the UK than the EU without the UK suffering because of it.

          And of course this would make it easier to trade and deal with other countries not in the EU.

          1. TomChaton
            Stop

            Re: So the trouble with taking back control

            Who is criminalised? The banana?

            1. codejunky Silver badge

              Re: So the trouble with taking back control

              @ TomChaton

              "Who is criminalised? The banana?"

              Unfortunately the seller. Punishment is something like up to 6 months in the slammer and/or up to 5000 euro fine. Harsh isnt it

            2. Teiwaz

              Re: So the trouble with taking back control

              "Who is criminalised? The banana?"

              It's perfectly legal to be a banana, it's just illegal to eat them or solicit them for sex.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: So the trouble with taking back control

            "Possibly but this was one of the better arguments for brexit, the EU laws are shockingly specific."

            Brexit might make it easier to trade with countries not in the EU, but it won't stop companies from having to be compliant with EU law.

            International companies that trade with the UK and other non-EU countries but not with the EU will be the exception, not the rule.

          3. H in The Hague

            Re: So the trouble with taking back control

            "... the EU laws are shockingly specific."

            Ermm, have you actually read any recent EU Directives? The old ones governing products were indeed quite specific (as similar regulations were in the UK, Germany, etc.). Modern ones tend to specify performance (e.g. safety glasses have to withstand a particular impact) but how that performance is reached is up to the manufacturer.

            Much of this regulation concerns safety, energy efficiency, etc. So the only way to save money would be to produce lower quality items for the UK market. Does not sound v attractive to me.

            "And of course this would make it easier to trade and deal with other countries not in the EU."

            No, many other countries also follow EU (or ISO or ....) regs. Easier and cheaper than developing their own.

            "The curve of a banana ..."

            See http://www.europarl.org.uk/en/media/euromyths/bendybananas.html

            http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1464266374037&uri=CELEX:32011R1333

            1. codejunky Silver badge

              Re: So the trouble with taking back control

              @ H in The Hague

              See (with link to the directive + the offending lines)

              http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/05/12/to-properly-explain-the-eus-bendy-bananas-rules-yes-theyre-real/#68f0a26524a2

          4. PeterFV

            Re: So the trouble with taking back control

            There never _was_ a law about banana curves. There still isn't a law about posting drivel without checking your facts ...

            1. codejunky Silver badge

              Re: So the trouble with taking back control

              @ PeterFV

              Erm, then you might want to go check. Please

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: So the trouble with taking back control

          >> The big problem for the UK government is going to be justifying to the electorate the necessity of keeping the vast majority of EU derived laws in place whether or not we make it into the single market.

          Nah. Don't tell them and they won't care. All they care about is less brown people buying houses

        3. Adam 52 Silver badge

          Re: So the trouble with taking back control

          "It has yet to be seen whether Brexit will end up with a reduction in UK government income that will wipe out the saving of not sending money to the EU any more"

          If we adopt the Swiss model, which we're likely going to have to if we want free movement and free trade, then the EU precept will be the same as it is now, we just won't get any of it back and we'll have extra costs.

  3. Warm Braw

    The corresponding government department is gone

    It's now the "Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy", its "Skills" having moved to Education and "Innovation" apparently left by the wayside.

    Still, having a large pile of weighty but unread reports is probably the best contribution to our energy security that MPs will make, so perhaps they are already taking their new responsibilities seriously.

  4. Teiwaz

    Brexit has left the UK peering into a digital regulatory void, according to MPs.

    I thought all Britain did as regards 'digital' was constantly push through legislation on spying on their own population which got punted back by Europe as illegal every so often so they had to draw up a new 'slightly' reworded version presumably harder to understand so 'johnny foreigner' might not understand it this time.

    1. Howard Hanek
      Happy

      Re: Brexit has left the UK peering into a digital regulatory void, according to MPs.

      ...Jacques, Juan, Johann, Giovanni, Ion..........

    2. Swarthy

      Re: Brexit has left the UK peering into a digital regulatory void, according to MPs.

      And then, after being slapped down one to many times, leave the EU so that they don't even need to try to get approval.

  5. Howard Hanek
    Childcatcher

    The Brussels Black Hole

    ....is actually much larger than the one depicted.

  6. oneswig

    Will the EU now need a UK Privacy Shield?

    I understand that leaving the EU will require the negotiation of something like the EU-US Privacy Shield agreement. This (apparently) places limits on US government surveillance.

    Would Theresa May sacrifice RIPA for access to the EU's digital market? If there is conflict then that's a juicy question.

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