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The Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2013 has received Royal Assent. The Act gives effect to the repeals put forward by the Law Commission for England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission in their 2012 Statute Law Repeals Report.

The report is the largest the Commissions have ever produced. It repeals 817 whole Acts and parts of 50 other Acts. The laws being repealed cover a wide variety of subjects and, together, offer an insight into some of the social issues Parliament has tackled through the ages. Among them are the turnpike Acts, which paved the way for today’s road transport infrastructure, and the laws that set up benevolent institutions in the 18th and 19th centuries to meet the needs of the poor, sick and elderly.

Sir David Lloyd Jones, Chairman of the Law Commission for England and Wales, said yesterday:

“The statute book is littered with obsolete provisions which no longer serve any useful purpose. We are committed to getting rid of these provisions in order to make the operative laws clearer and more accessible. This is no easy task and often requires painstaking legal and historical research. However, it is a vital function and, as social and technological change continue to be reflected in new legislation, the need for systematic review of old legislation will remain.

“Attention will inevitably be drawn to some of the more colourful and ancient examples of obsolete laws which are now repealed. However, many are comparatively modern provisions which serve no purpose and which can only obscure operative statute law.”

Lady Clark of Calton, Chairman of the Scottish Law Commission, said yesterday:

“Getting rid of statutory dead wood helps to simplify and modernise our law, making it more intelligible. It saves time and costs for lawyers and others who need to know what the law actually is, and makes it easier for citizens to access justice.”

The Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2013 received Royal Assent on 31 January 2013. It comes into force immediately.

For more on the Commissions’ statute law repeals work visit www.lawcom.gov.uk or http://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/law-reform-projects/joint-projects/statute-law-repeals

Examples of repeals included in the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2013

• A 1696 turnpike Act to repair the roads between Reigate (Surrey) and Crawley (West Sussex)

• 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

• 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 of 1666

• An 1800 Act to hold a lottery to win the £30,000 Pigot Diamond

• 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

• The removal of unnecessary taxation provisions.

Notes for editors

1. The Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission are non-political independent bodies, set up by Parliament in 1965 to keep all the law of England and Wales and of Scotland under review, and to recommend reform where it is needed.

2. For more details on this project, visit www.lawcom.gov.uk and http://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/law-reform-projects/joint-projects/statute-law-repeals/

3. For all press queries please contact:
Phil Hodgson, Head of External Relations 020 3334 0230
Jackie Samuel 020 3334 0216
Email: communications@lawcommission.gsi.gov.uk