The Procurement Act 2023 (Specified International Agreements and Saving Provision) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Published: Thu 26th Mar 26

The Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2019 serves to formally remove enactments from the statute book that have become obsolete, spent, or unnecessary.

This legislation periodically cleanses the statute book by specifying which parts of previous Acts are repealed and clarifies the saving and transitional provisions related to those repeals, thereby ensuring the continuing legislation remains current while removing historical legal clutter.

Arguments For

Streamlines the statute book by removing outdated, spent, or unnecessary legislation, improving clarity and accessibility for legal professionals and the public.
Reduces the potential for confusion and error by eliminating obsolete laws that no longer serve a practical purpose.
Promotes good governance by ensuring that the body of law reflects current legal and societal needs.
Addresses historical legislative oversights where enactments have become redundant due to subsequent legislation or changes in circumstance.

Arguments Against

Risk of inadvertently repealing necessary but obscure provisions if scrutiny during the law revision process is insufficient.
Potential for disruption to legal precedents or subtle rights derived from the repealed statutes, even if those statutes are deemed obsolete.
The Act consolidates repeals over time, which can make tracking the full legislative history of a subject area more complex if not cross-referenced properly.
Legislative tidying exercises consume parliamentary and civil service time which could potentially be directed towards current policy.

Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2019

An Act to promote the revision of the statute law by repealing enactments which are obsolete, spent, or unnecessary, and for purposes connected therewith.

[26th March 2019]

This is the title and purpose statement for the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2019, enacted on March 26, 2019.

Its main goal is to simplify the body of UK statute law by formally removing laws that are no longer functional, have already served their purpose, or are redundant.

Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

This is the standard enacting formula used in UK Acts of Parliament.

It signifies that the following content has been formally passed by both Houses of Parliament (the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons) and has received Royal Assent, thereby becoming law.

PART 1

REPEALS

1 Repeals within this Act

Part 1 of the Act is dedicated to the actual repeals being enacted.

Section 1 specifically introduces the clauses that list which parts of existing legislation are being repealed by this 2019 Act.

(1) The enactments specified in Schedule 1 are repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

(2) The repeal of an enactment by virtue of this Act is subject to the saving and transitional provisions contained in Schedule 2.

Subsection (1) states that the specific laws detailed in Schedule 1 of this Act are officially repealed, noting the exact extent of the repeal in the third column of that schedule.

Subsection (2) clarifies that these repeals are conditional upon the saving and transitional arrangements outlined in Schedule 2, ensuring that existing rights or ongoing cases are not inadvertently affected.

2 Extent of Part 1

(1) Part 1 extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

(2) Section 1 does not extend to the application of an enactment in relation to a disclosure under section 113B of the Police Act 1997 (protected information) made on or after the coming into force of section 32(2) of the Serious Crime Act 2015 to the extent that the enactment relates to the making of such a disclosure.

(3) Part 1 extends to Northern Ireland applications of an enactment where the enactment relates to a matter in respect of which a Secretary of State has the power to make an order under section 104(2) of the Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978.

This section defines the geographical reach of Part 1.

Subsection (1) confirms that the repeals apply across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Subsection (2) creates a specific exception concerning the Police Act 1997 and certain disclosures related to protected information under the Serious Crime Act 2015, ensuring those specific provisions remain unaffected by this Act.

Subsection (3) clarifies that Part 1 applies to Northern Ireland matters even if those matters fall under the power of a Secretary of State to issue orders related to the Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978.

PART 2

GENERAL

Part 2 of the Act deals with general provisions that apply across the whole Act, rather than just the specific repeals detailed in Part 1.

3 Short title

This section provides the official, short title by which this piece of legislation will be known.

This Act may be cited as the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2019.

The official short title for this legislation is the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2019.

SCHEDULES

This heading indicates the start of the supplementary schedules which contain the detailed lists and provisions supporting the main parts of the Act.

SCHEDULE 1

ENACTMENTS REPEALED

Schedule 1 contains the primary substance of the Act: a detailed list of every specific piece of legislation or part of legislation that is being repealed by this Act.

Session and Chapter | Short Title | Extent of Repeal

This is the column header for the table within Schedule 1, outlining the required information: the Parliamentary session and chapter number of the repealed Act, its short title, and precisely how much of it is being repealed.

42 & 43 Vict. c. 49. | Petty Sessions Areas (Ireland) Act 1879. | The whole Act.

This entry specifies the repeal of the Petty Sessions Areas (Ireland) Act 1879 (Chapter 49 of the 1879 legislative year).

The entire Act is being repealed by this Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2019.

The ellipsis indicates that the table in Schedule 1 contains many more entries specifying further enactments to be repealed, but only one example is shown here.

SCHEDULE 2

SAVING AND TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

Schedule 2 outlines conditions designed to manage the transition following the repeals made by the Act, ensuring that existing legal situations, rights, or pending matters are handled correctly and not arbitrarily terminated.

1 General saving for enactments in this Act

Provision 1 in Schedule 2 sets out a general principle for saving existing legal effects when an enactment is repealed by this Act.

The repeal of an enactment by virtue of this Act does not affect the operation of that enactment in respect of any period before the repeal comes into force, or any limitation on the effect of that enactment which was in force immediately before the repeal came into force.

This provision states that even though an enactment is repealed, its effect regarding any event that occurred before the repeal date remains valid.

Furthermore, any existing limitations placed on that enactment before its repeal continue to apply to its historical operation.

2 Saving for repeal of repealing enactments

Provision 2 deals with the preservation of previous repeals if this Act repeals an enactment that itself previously repealed another law.

The repeal by this Act of an enactment which was repealed by an earlier enactment does not— (a) revive the earlier enactment, or (b) affect any repeal or saving made by the earlier enactment.

If this Act repeals a law that had previously been used to repeal yet another law, subsection (a) ensures that the original, older repealed law is not accidentally brought back into force.

Subsection (b) confirms that any existing savings or repeals already established by that earlier repealing enactment remain untouched by this current Act.

3 Saving for repeals of enactments which affect other enactments

Provision 3 addresses situations where a repealed enactment modified or impacted other existing laws.

The repeal by this Act of an enactment which amended, extended, restricted, modified or otherwise affected another enactment does not affect the operation of the other enactment except to the extent that the repeal of the first-mentioned enactment removes an amendment, extension, restriction, modification or other effect that amended, extended, restricted, modified or otherwise affected the other enactment.

When an Act repeals a law that had been modifying another law (e.g., extending its scope or limiting it), this provision ensures that the other, unaffected law continues in operation.

The only change is the removal of the specific modification that the now-repealed law imposed upon it.

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