Statutes Repeal Bill

I want to take only a very brief call on the commencement clause, because, of course, there is a relatively limited amount that one can say on the commencement clause, which, basically, means that this law—this new Act—will come into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent. The question, really, is what the legal effect of that is, considering the comments that I made earlier. Many of these repeals have already been repealed, so what is the legal effect of repealing them again? Once this new repeal comes into effect, how is the world going to change if the things that it is repealing have already been repealed? So the Royal assent in this case does not actually make a heck of a lot of difference, given that this particular bill gives effect to decisions that have already been made. So I think that it is an interesting legal question.

The other question would be: if something has already been repealed, and then this Act repeals the repeal, does the original repeal come undone, therefore making the mischief that was repealed in the first place once again operable? I guess that is a question for a legal scholar, like—maybe the Minister in the chair, Paul Goldsmith, would like to argue that; but I am pretty sure it will not. I would love to hear from one of the greater legal minds in the House than me as to whether that is the case, because it seems to me that would create all sorts of issues.

Clause 2 agreed to.

Clause 3 Repeals