Does 85% of British legislation originate in Brussels? Government not bothered

Lord Stoddart of Swindon put down a question in the House of Lords on 28 April: “To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, in the light of the statement by German MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis that 85 per cent of German legislation originates in Brussels, they will state what percentage of United Kingdom legislation is of European Union origin.” [HL2941]

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister, Lord Malloch-Brown, replied “It would entail disproportionate cost to research and compile the percentage of UK legislation originating in the European Union: some European measures are directly applicable in member states and others require incorporation into national law through a variety of legislative or administrative means. It has been estimated that around half of all UK legislation with an impact on business, charities and the voluntary sector stems from legislation agreed by Ministers in Brussels, but this is a category of legislation which is more likely than legislation in general to have originated in the EU. It is likely that the overall proportion is therefore much lower.”