The Law Commission

PART VIII

STATUTE LAW

TEAM MEMBERS

Consolidation^[1]

The Chairman, Edward Caldwell, Mark Hudson, Jessica de Mounteney, Catherine O'Riordan, Chris Packer, Bernadette Walsh

Statute Law Revision

The Chairman, John Saunders, Elizabeth McElhinney, Claire Fox

CONSOLIDATION

8.1     The Law Commission has a duty to keep under review all the law with which it is concerned, with a view to reducing the number of separate enactments and generally simplifying and modernising the law. An important aspect of this is consolidation. The need for this arises when, over a period of time, separate statutes are enacted on the same general subject matter or particular legislation is repeatedly amended. In either case, the law can become difficult to piece together. 
8.2     Consolidation consists of drawing together different enactments on the same subject matter to form a rational structure and of making more intelligible the cumulative effect of different layers of textual amendment. Usually this is done by means of a single statute. However, in the case of a large consolidation, it may be done by means of several statutes. The aim is to make the statutory law more comprehensible, both to those who have to apply it and to those who are affected by it. 
8.3     If anomalies are revealed in the process of consolidation, various devices (such as amendments recommended by the Law Commission) are available to rectify them. Some anomalies are beyond the scope of these devices. They must either be reproduced or be altered by an Act passed (or where there is sufficient power, subordinate legislation made) before the actual consolidation Bill is introduced. 
8.4     The process of consolidation requires the support and participation of the government department or departments within whose responsibility the subject matter falls. 
8.5     No consolidations have been enacted in the period since the Commission's last annual report. 
8.6     For a number of reasons it is much more difficult to consolidate now than it was when the Law Commission was set up in 1965. One problem is sheer size. The statute book grows inexorably. Parliament enacts several thousand pages of new primary law every year and repeals relatively little. 
8.7     The need for consolidation is felt most acutely in those areas where there has been a considerable amount of legislative activity. So when the Commission comes to consolidate the legislation on a particular subject it tends to find that the total amount of legislation to be consolidated is large and this can be expected to place a serious strain on resources — both within the Law Commission and in the responsible department. 
8.8     It is hoped that the Commission's consolidation programme will soon be back on track. 
8.9     Work on the consolidation of the legislation about representation of the people is well advanced but has had to be suspended on several occasions. In some cases that has been because of a reorganisation of Ministerial responsibility (and there has been more than one affecting this project). Moving the subject of electoral law from one department to another inevitably causes delay. 
8.10     The Department for Constitutional Affairs has asked for work on the consolidation to be suspended while the government considers its response to the Electoral Commission's report Voting for Change, which recommended significant changes to the law. 
8.11     Work on consolidation of the legislation on wireless telegraphy has also been delayed. The consolidation was anticipated when the Communications Act 2003 was being prepared (and a power to make pre-consolidation amendments by order was included in the Act) but the work involved in setting up the new regulatory regime created by the Act has delayed progress on the consolidation. 
8.12     On a more encouraging note, a consolidation of the legislation about the national health service has been started. This is an area of the statute book in which there has been a considerable amount of activity since 1997. Indeed, the Commission had a consolidation nearly ready for introduction in 1997 when the election of a new government, with plans for remodelling the NHS, led to the decision that the consolidation should be dropped. The new attempt at a consolidation has the full support of the Department of Health and an additional draftsman has been seconded to the Commission from the Parliamentary Counsel Office to undertake the consolidation. Work is now well under way. 

STATUTE LAW REVISION

8.13     The principal purpose of statute law revision is the repeal of statutes that are obsolete or which otherwise no longer serve any useful purpose, so modernising the statute book and leaving it clearer and shorter. This helps to save the time of lawyers and others who need to use it. Our work is carried out by means of Statute Law (Repeals) Bills, which we publish periodically in our Statute Law Revision reports. There have been 17 such Bills since 1965. All have been enacted (the seventeenth is currently being considered by Parliament), so repealing more than 2000 Acts in their entirety and achieving partial repeals in thousands of other Acts. 
8.14     Our Seventeenth Report on Statute Law Revision^[2] was published on 16 December 2003. Annexed to it was the draft Statute Law (Repeals) Bill that was introduced into the House of Lords the same day and which is expected to receive Royal Assent later this year. This will result in the repeal of 68 whole Acts and the removal of redundant provisions from over 400 other Acts. The repeals include the Apprentices Act 1814, the Queen Anne's Bounty Act 1838 and a wide range of obsolete enactments from topics as varied as agriculture, aviation, public health and road traffic. 
8.15     Work on the next Statute Law Revision Report has already started. This will, as always, contain proposals for the repeal of statutes which are no longer of practical utility. Topics being considered include criminal law, the armed forces, the police and tax. In all our work we produce a consultation document inviting comments on a selection of repeals in each area. These documents are then circulated to Departments and other interested bodies and individuals. Subject to the response that we receive we hope to include repeals relating to all the projects mentioned above in our next Statute Law Revision report. 
8.16     Much of our work on statute law revision is conducted jointly with the Scottish Law Commission and many of the repeal candidates contained in our Report extend to Scotland. Although the establishment of the Scottish Parliament alters the way that the statute law revision work of the two Commissions is carried out, the Scottish Executive has been content that our Report should include provisions that extend to Scotland even where the subject matter of a repeal has been devolved for the purposes of the Scotland Act 1998. 
8.17     Because our Statute Law (Repeals) Acts extend throughout the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man, we liaise regularly on our proposals not only with the Scottish Law Commission but also with the authorities in Wales (the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales and the Counsel General to the National Assembly for Wales) and with the authorities in Northern Ireland and in the Isle of Man. We much appreciate their help and support in considering and responding to our proposals. 
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Note 1    Including Parliamentary Counsel who were at the Commission for part of the period.     [Back]

Note 2    Joint Report with the Scottish Law Commission: Law Com No 285; Scot Law Com No 193, Cm 6070, SE/2003/313.    [Back]