STATUTE LAW REVISION: SIXTEENTH ... - Law Commission

so far as their effect is preserved) are no longer of practical utility, and to make
other provision in connection with the repeal of those enactments.” 11 The
concept of “practical utility” referred to in the long title of Statute Law (Repeals)
Acts reflects the objective of the Law Commission set out in its First Programme
on Consolidation and Statute Law Revision “to work systematically through the
existing statutes with a view to recommending the repeal not only of matter which
can be treated as inoperative, but also of matter that no longer serves a
substantial purpose.” 12 Typically Statute Law (Repeals) Acts contain not only a
Schedule of repeals of enactments but also a Schedule containing amendments
to enactments made necessary by certain of those repeals (consequential
amendments) together with, in some instances, more general provisions made
necessary by the repeals. All Statute Law (Repeals) Bills have, since the First
Report of the Law Commissions on Statute Law Revision, been referred to the
Joint Select Committee on Consolidation Bills for consideration and report. 13
9.2 The earliest of the Statute Law (Repeals) Acts is now nearly thirty years old and
eight of the Acts, passed between 1969 and 1978, have been on the statute
book for at least twenty years. It is therefore timely to assess the extent to which
these early Acts are any longer of practical utility. Strictly speaking, a Statute
Law (Repeals) Act becomes largely spent once it comes into force at the
moment of Royal Assent. This is because the great majority of the repeals listed
in the Schedule to each Act take effect at that moment. In practice, however,
most of the Acts contain other provisions that cannot be repealed immediately.
For example, there may be savings and transitional provisions which serve to
modify the effect of individual repeals. It may also be necessary for the Act to
make consequential amendments to other enactments. Provisions of this sort
justify keeping the Act in force until the need for the savings, transitional or
consequential provision has ceased. Nevertheless the bulk of these early Acts,
comprising repeals that are spent, have long ceased to have any practical utility
and are of historical interest only.
9.3 Another consideration is the amount of space that Statute Law (Repeals) Acts
take up in the statute book. They currently occupy over 300 pages of text in the
relevant volume of Halsbury’s Statutes. 14 Much of this text is taken up by the
Acts passed between 1969 and 1978. The Acts also have to be included in
databases of the statute book. All this creates additional cost for legal publishers
and data suppliers and for those who buy their products.
9.4 It is proposed that the eight earliest Acts, those passed between 1969 and 1978,
should be repealed on the basis that they are spent and are of no continuing
practical utility. In one case - the 1971 Act - the whole Act can be repealed
outright. The other Acts contain savings and other provisions which remain ‘live’
and so which cannot yet be recommended for repeal. Nevertheless, those
11 The long title of the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1976 (c.16), which has been followed, with
necessary variants, in subsequent Statute Law (Repeals) Acts.
12 Law Com No 2, paragraph 14 (published November 1965).
13 Motion moved in the House of Lords, Hansard (HL), vol 302, col 311, 20 May 1969, agreed
to by the House of Commons, Hansard (HC), vol 784, col 615, 21 May 1969.
14 (4th edition) vol 41 (1995 Reissue).
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