§ The Lord ChancellorMy Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. As your Lordships will be aware, one of the functions of the Law Commission and of the Scottish Law Commission is to promote:
the repeal of obsolete and unnecessary enactments, the reduction of the number of separate enactments and generally the simplification and modernisation of the law".The Law Commissions have, over the past 24 years, presented to Parliament 14 reports on statute law revision with draft Bills attached. The 13 previous reports have resulted in the repeal of over 2,600 enactments, including 1,414 whole Acts. The present Bill proposes the repeal of 159 whole Acts or orders and the removal of redundant provisions from 462 others. The Bill also secures the reinstatement of a statute dating back to the time of George III which was inadvertently repealed by statute law repeals legislation in 1978.The repeals set out in Schedule I to the Bill are in 16 parts. They cover such areas as the administration of justice, agriculture, allotments, company law, ecclesiastical law, family law, local government, property law and transport. The oldest statute to be repealed draws vintage from the reign of Henry VII and is the Ordinances of Corporations Act 1503. Other candidates for repeal include provisions in the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 and the entirety of the Piracy Act 1698, which was drafted, in part at least, as a deterrent to those captains and crew who were tempted to turn pirate—the most famous example being Captain Kidd who turned pirate with a well-armed vessel put under his command by the Government with instructions to destroy pirates.
Bills such as these play an invaluable role in the work of modernising and improving the statute book. I am sure that your Lordships would wish to join me in thanking the two Law Commissions for the thorough and painstaking way in which they have set about their task. In this context, I would also seek to record appreciation for the efforts of the principal draftsman of the Bill, Frank Streeten, who will shortly be retiring from his work at the Law Commission.
1184 If your Lordships are content to give the Bill a Second Reading, it will be referred to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills in the usual way. I beg to move.
Moved, That the Bill be now read a second time. —(The Lord Chancellor.)
On Question, Bill read a second time, and referred to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills.