Briefing paper on the new EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill

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The House of Commons Library has produced a briefing on the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill 2019-20, published in December 2019, and a comparison with the previous version of the Bill considered by the House of Commons in October 2019.

The EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill 2019-20 was introduced into the House of Commons on Friday 20 December 2019. It is mostly the same as the Bill of the same name introduced in the previous Parliament. However, some provisions have been substantially altered, removed, or added, and there are also a number of more minor drafting changes.  

The current Bill has been introduced because the UK Government and the EU have reached political agreement to a negotiated withdrawal agreement (a treaty) and a framework for the future relationship. In order to ratify and implement that withdrawal agreement (WA) further primary legislation is required.

This short paper highlights the changes between the October version of the Bill and the December version of the Bill on a clause-by-clause basis, in table format. 

A Commons Library Insight The new EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill: What’s changed? provides background to the Bill and identifies the key differences between the Bill and the earlier October 2019 version.

Other Library briefings

The following Library briefings analyse specific aspects of the December 2019 EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill:

• The new EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill: What’s changed? This provides background to the Bill and identifies the key differences between the Bill and the earlier October 2019 version. 
• Family reunion rights and the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill.   This discusses the new clause 37 of the Bill, and its potential impact on family reunion rights for unaccompanied children.
• Removal of workers’ rights in the new EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill. This discusses the clauses on workers’ rights included in the October version of the Bill, and the implications of their removal from the new version of the Bill.
• Citizens' rights provisions in the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill 2019-20.

The October EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill

The Commons Library produced a series of Insights and briefings papers on the October 2019 version of the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill, which fell with dissolution. Some of these are still relevant to the December version of the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill, although in some cases there have been changes in wording or renumbering of clauses.

The following Insights are up to date in substantive terms:

• Withdrawal Agreement Bill: Ratifying the Withdrawal Agreement is still relevant, but the numbering of the clauses has changed slightly.
• Withdrawal Agreement Bill: Implementing the transition period is still relevant. 
• Withdrawal Agreement Bill: Sovereignty, special status and the Withdrawal Agreement is still relevant, but for references to old clause 36 reference should now be made to clause 38. There are other new nuances to do with retained EU law and the role of the CJEU which will be addressed more fully in a future Library publication. 
• Much of Withdrawal Agreement Bill: The financial settlement is still relevant, but readers should note that the March 2021 deadline for the standing service provision would no longer be amendable by delegated legislation.
• The Library briefing paper The Withdrawal Agreement Bill: The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland is still relevant. However, there is a discussion in section 3.3 of the paper of clause 30 of the October WAB relating to approving an extension to the transition period. This discussion is no longer relevant as this clause was removed in the December 2019 version of the Bill.