§ 3.38 p.m.
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Hailsham of Saint Mary-lebone)My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a third time. Exceptionally, your Lordships will notice that if the Bill is given a Third Reading I shall in a moment be moving an amendment.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 3a.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Bill read 3a.
§
The Lord Chancellor moved the following amendment:
Clause 57, page 28, line 45, leave out from ("force") to end of line 46 and insert ("at the end of the period of three months beginning with the day on which it is passed.").
§ The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move the amendment standing in my name, which is an exceptional one because the Bill is a Consolidation Bill. It is now Law Commission policy that unless there are exceptional circumstances Consolidation Bills should provide that they will come into force three months after Royal Assent. This has two obvious advantages: it ensures that a reasonable length of time elapses between the passing of the Act and the entry into force so that those concerned with the area of the law in question may obtain prints of the Act and become familiar with it. Secondly, it avoids the necessity for lawyers and others to scan the lists of statutory instruments for the Commencement Order which will bring the Act into force, and incidentally also avoids the somewhat trivial expense of a Commencement Order. I therefore beg to move the amendment.
§ On Question, amendment agreed to.
§ Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.