A consolidation bill is a bill introduced into the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

with the intention of consolidating several acts of Parliament or statutory instruments into a single act. Such bills simplify the statute book without significantly changing the state of the law, and are subject to an expedited

parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedures are the accepted Procedural law, rules, ethics, and Norm (sociology), customs governing meetings of an deliberative assembly, assembly or organization. Their object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of inte ...

. Once enacted a consolidation bill becomes a consolidation act. The parliamentary practice of legislating only for small portions of a subject at a time can create undue complexity in

statute law A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...

. Acts relating to a particular subject often end up scattered over many years, and through the operation of clauses partially repealing or amending former acts, the specific meaning of the law regarding the subject becomes enveloped in intricate or contradictory expressions. For clarity, the law as expressed across many statutes is sometimes recast in a single statute, called a consolidation bill. By 1911, such bills had been passed dealing with subjects as diverse as

customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...

, stamps and stamp duties,

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

, weights and measures, sheriffs, coroners, county courts, housing,

municipal corporation Municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally o ...

libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

, trustees,

copyhold Copyhold was a form of customary land ownership common from the Late Middle Ages into modern times in England. The name for this type of land tenure is derived from the act of giving a copy of the relevant title deed that is recorded in the ...

, diseases of animals, merchant shipping, and friendly societies. These observations apply to the public general acts of the legislature. On the other hand, in settling local acts, such as those relating to

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

and

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

enterprise, the legislature always inserted certain clauses founded on reasons of public policy applicable to the business in question. To avoid the necessity of constantly re-enacting the same principles in local acts, their common clauses were embodied in separate statutes, and their provisions are ordered to be incorporated in any local act of the description mentioned therein. Such are the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 ( 8 & 9 Vict. c. 18),the Companies Clauses Act 1863 and the Railways Clauses Act 1863.

Procedure

Consolidation bills are introduced in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

which, by convention, has primacy in these matters. The Lords has the only substantive discussion on the bill, at its second reading, before the bill is sent to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills, which may propose amendments to it. Subject to this, the Lords' third reading and all readings in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

are usually formalities and pass without debate. Most consolidation bills are proposed in the first instance by a law reform body—either the Law Commission (in England and Wales), the Scottish Law Commission or the Northern Ireland Law Commission—and it is this prior consideration that gives rise to the expedited process afforded to these bills. Every consolidation bill proposed by the Law Commission has been passed by Parliament. Once a consolidation bill receives

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

it becomes a consolidation act. An example of a consolidation act is the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000, which consolidated into a single act parts of

sentencing In criminal law, a sentence is the punishment for a crime ordered by a trial court after conviction in a criminal procedure, normally at the conclusion of a trial. A sentence may consist of imprisonment, a fine, or other sanctions. Sentences f ...

legislation previously spread across twelve separate acts. Another example of a consolidation act in relation to sentencing is the Sentencing Act 2020, which significantly replaced many acts in relation to sentencing including the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000.

List of consolidation acts

The following are consolidation acts ('Tax Law Rewrite' acts are not included):"Tax Law Rewrite"
.

HMRC His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (commonly HM Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, and formerly Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) is a Departments of the United Kingdom Government, department of the UK government responsible for the tax collectio ...

. ;1990s onwards ;1980s ;1970s ;1960s No consolidation acts were passed in 2008,The Public General Acts and General Synod Measures 2008. TSO. 2009. . Part V (tables and index). Page 3211. 2004,The Public General Acts and General Synod Measures 2004. TSO. . Part IV (tables and index). Table V. Page i. or 1999.The Public General Acts and General Synod Measures 1999. The Stationery Office Limited. 2000. . Part III (tables and indexes). Page ''h''.

References

External links

The Joint Committee on Consolidation BillsThe Law Commission for England and WalesThe United Kingdom Parliament
*{{EB1911, wstitle=Consolidation Acts, volume=6, page=979 Law of the United Kingdom Parliament of the United Kingdom Statutory law Consolidation Acts

Procedure

Categories

List of consolidation acts

See also

References

External links