On day one of independence, any rules that businesses had to follow in the UK (or passed by the Senedd before independence) would continue to apply.

We have a common law system. That system is based on what judges have already ruled and what laws have already been passed by the UK Parliament or Senedd. The UK has also retained some European Union laws following Brexit.

Bits and pieces of laws passed by the UK Parliament continue to apply to this day in other independent countries like Ireland, Canada and Australia. The same would happen in Wales.

Whether any new rules are placed on businesses after independence depends on several things:

• What political parties elected to form a Welsh Government by the people of Wales want to do (in their manifestos).
• Whether there’s any demand from the public for rules to change (i.e. a petition or campaign).
• Whether Wales has to change its rules and laws to (as an example) join the EU or sign a free trade agreement.
• Decisions by the courts that forces politicians to change the law (i.e. in response to an accident or public scandal).
• To close a loophole that could put people or businesses at risk.

The direction of travel always seems to be towards “more rules”. However, there may be cases where a Senedd/Welsh Parliament in an independent Wales decides to relax or even get rid of certain rules.

Those rules might be outdated, don’t work as well as they used to or need to be re-written.