Section 3

Direct EU legislation, so far as operative immediately before IP completion day, forms part of domestic law on and after IP completion day. In this Act “direct EU legislation” means— any EU regulation, EU decision or EU tertiary legislation, as it has effect in EU law immediately before IP completion day and so far as— it is applicable to and in the United Kingdom by virtue of Part 4 of the withdrawal agreement, it neither has effect nor is to have effect by virtue of section 7A or 7B, it is not an exempt EU instrument (for which see section 20(1) and Schedule 6), and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . its effect is not reproduced in an enactment to which section 2(1) applies, any Annex to the EEA agreement, as it has effect in EU law immediately before IP completion day and so far as— it is applicable to and in the United Kingdom by virtue of Part 4 of the withdrawal agreement, it neither has effect nor is to have effect by virtue of section 7A or 7B, it refers to, or contains adaptations of, anything falling within paragraph (a), and its effect is not reproduced in an enactment to which section 2(1) applies, or Protocol 1 to the EEA agreement (which contains horizontal adaptations that apply in relation to EU instruments referred to in the Annexes to that agreement), as it has effect in EU law immediately before IP completion day and so far as— it is applicable to and in the United Kingdom by virtue of Part 4 of the withdrawal agreement, and it neither has effect nor is to have effect by virtue of section 7A or 7B. For the purposes of this Act, any direct EU legislation is operative immediately before IP completion day if— in the case of anything which comes into force at a particular time and is stated to apply from a later time, it is in force and applies immediately before IP completion day, in the case of a decision which specifies to whom it is addressed, it has been notified to that person before IP completion day, and in any other case, it is in force immediately before IP completion day. This section— but paragraph (a) does not affect the use of the other language versions of that legislation for the purposes of interpreting it. brings into domestic law any direct EU legislation only in the form of the English language version of that legislation, and does not apply to any such legislation for which there is no such version, This section is subject to section 5 and Schedule 1 (exceptions to savings and incorporation) and section 5A (savings and incorporation: supplementary).

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Source: legislation.gov.uk · retrieved 2026-07-30