The European Union now produces four big pieces of legislation every week, and a tide of other documentation affecting every aspect of our lives: from the way we do business to the price we pay for our food.

In a parliamentary democracy such as Britain, we expect our elected MPs to hold the government to account and to influence the shape of its legislation. However, when it comes to EU legislation – which now accounts for half of the UK’s new laws – our parliament has no power to affect these decisions in any meaningful way. As well as a shift of power from Britain to the European level, this also means a huge shift of power from parliament to the government. The current system allows the government to sign up to EU legislation in Brussels without first gaining agreement from UK parliament. Often parliament is not even given time to discuss the issues. When parliament specifically asks the government for time to debate a new EU law, the government increasingly chooses to use the so-called “override” mechanism to avoid parliamentary scrutiny.