The prime minister has announced that the next Queen’s Speech will include the grandly titled Great Repeal Bill, which will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and ensure that existing European legislation is enshrined in the law of the UK.

As we prepare to exit from the EU, the effect of the proposals seems to be one of gradual change, avoiding major adjustments where possible. But what will all this mean for Watford employers and employees?

By adopting all current European law into our domestic law, the government would appear to be trying to ensure that there will be no immediate reduction or change in employment rights when the country leaves the EU in 2019, assuming that a current legal challenge being heard in the courts does not delay matters.

Any future changes to the laws will be subject to the scrutiny of proper Parliamentary debate and not laws made in Brussels. This “business as usual” approach to employment law was reinforced by the prime minister in her speech at the Conservative Party Conference.

She said: “Existing workers’ legal rights will continue to be guaranteed in law, and they will be guaranteed as long as I am prime minister” and, “We’re going to see workers’ rights not eroded, and not just protected, but enhanced under this government.”

Theresa May’s opening address to the Conservative Party Conference has given us perhaps our first meaningful glimpse into how the process of the UK’s exit from the EU will be put into effect. We are no closer to knowing how some of the headline issues from the Referendum debate (such as immigration and trade) will be dealt with. However, we do now have more of an idea of what life will look like in the workplace as we embark on the challenge of extricating ourselves from 45 years of European legislation.

The devil will, of course, be in the detail and we expect the Great Repeal Bill (and, inevitably, the rafts of corresponding secondary legislation) to contain a lot of detail.

VWV has a Brexit planning team, available to answer any queries you may have on our exit from the EU. The team, and further details on Brexit, can be found at vwv.co.uk/brexit-legal-implications.