Statute Law Repeals 19th Report

Current project status

• Initiation: Could include discussing scope and terms of reference with lead Government Department
• Pre-consultation: Could include approaching interest groups and specialists, producing scoping and issues papers, finalising terms of project
• Consultation: Likely to include consultation events and paper, making provisional proposals for comment
• Policy development: Will include analysis of consultation responses. Could include further issues papers and consultation on draft Bill
• Reported: Usually recommendations for law reform but can be advice to government, scoping report or other recommendations

The repeals recommended in this report were implemented in the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2013, which received Royal Assent on 31 January 2013

The Statute Law (Repeals) Bill, which originated in the 19th Statute Law Repeals report, became the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2013 when it received Royal Assent on 31 January 2013.

The Bill was introduced into Parliament on 10 October 2012 (details below). The Notes on the Bill and the text of the report are available at the links at the bottom of this page.

The Bill was given its Second Reading in the House of Lords on 5 November 2012 and considered by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills on 21 November. Our repeal proposals were approved by the Committee without amendment.

Second Reading – read the transcript / view the video (starting at around 01:16:30)

Joint Committee – view the video

The 19th Statute Law Repeals report was published jointly with the Scottish Law Commission. Repeals included in the 2013 Act relate to:

• Benevolent Institutions
• Civil and Criminal Justice
• Indian Railways
• Ireland (Dublin City)
• Local Courts and Administration of Justice
• London
• Lotteries
• Poor relief
• Railways
• Taxation and Pensions
• Turnpikes

The 2013 Act is the largest Statute Law (Repeals) Act that the Commissions have ever produced and repeals 817 whole Acts and part repeals 50 other Acts. The earliest repeal is from around 1322 (Statutes of the Exchequer) and the latest is part of the Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Act 2010. Repeals in the Act include:

• An Act of 1856 passed to help imprisoned debtors secure their early release from prison
• A 1710 Act to raise coal duty to pay for 50 new churches in London
• 38 obsolete Acts relating to the various railway companies operating in British India and the wider East Indies
• 40 Acts relating to the City of Dublin and passed by the UK Parliament before Ireland was partitioned in 1921
• A 1696 Act to fund the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire 1666
• An 1800 Act to hold a lottery to win the £30,000 Pigot Diamond
• 57 obsolete Acts to raise money for the parish poor, including a 1697 Act to run a workhouse in Exeter
• 295 obsolete railway Acts.  Many of the railways projects outlined in these Acts collapsed in the banking crisis of 1866
• 16 Acts passed between 1798 and 1828 to impose duty on every pint of ale, beer or porter brewed or sold in parts of Scotland
• A 1696 turnpike Act to repair the roads between Reigate (Surrey) and Crawley (West Sussex)
• The removal of unnecessary taxation provisions