United Kingdom may have to pass 15 new bills for Brexit

LONDON: Even before the UK leaves the European Union, its Parliament may need to pass as many as 15 new bills and thousands of pages of “secondary legislation” covering immigration, trade and agriculture to name but a few.

These are among the findings of an 18-page report released on Monday by the Institute of Government that examined what it called the “huge burden” Brexit will place on lawmakers and government departments to pull off the biggest peacetime challenge the country has faced.

“The legislation required for Brexit will leave little parliamentary time for anything else,” Hannah White, IFG’s director of research, said in a release.

To give a sense of the task at hand, the think tank said that in most years, about 20 new pieces of government legislation are unveiled during the Queen’s speech, when Elizabeth II formally kicks off a new parliamentary session; that’s the number of bills both houses can typically handle.