Statute law repeals

Commissioner

Lady Paton, SLC Chair

Team member

Vacant, Project Manager

One of the Scottish Law Commission's functions is to recommend the repeal of obsolete legislation. We undertake this work jointly with the Law Commission for England and Wales.

The purpose of repealing obsolete legislation is to modernise and simplify the statute book, reduce its size and make it easier for people to use. This in turn helps to avoid unnecessary costs.  It also helps to avoid people being misled by outdated legislation that appears to be current law. Further details about the process of repealing legislation are available in a background note.

The Commissions present their proposals to Government as Statute Law Repeals Reports, published with a draft Bill.  Implementation of the proposals is by means of a special Statute Law (Repeals) Bill.  Since 1965, 19 such Bills have been enacted, repealing more than 3,000 Acts in their entirety.

Our latest report

The Commissions published their Twentieth Report and Draft Statute Law (Repeals) Bill on 3 June 2015.  The Report recommends the clearing away of more than 200 obsolete laws, so as to clean up the statute book.  A joint news release is available.

We hope that the draft Statute Law (Repeals) Bill contained in the Report will be introduced in the UK Parliament soon.

For more general information, please contact: info@scotlawcom.gov.uk.