[1] In 1806, the Commission on Public Records passed a resolution requesting the production of a report on the best mode of reducing the volume of the statute book.
[2] In 1816, both Houses of Parliament, passed resolutions that an eminent lawyer with 20 clerks be commissioned to make a digest of the statutes, which was declared "very expedient to be done."
[2] Two major Bills based on the work of the Commission covering offences against the person and larceny were introduced in 1853 and continued under Lord Cranworth.
The bills made no progress, principally because of the unanimously unfavourable judicial reaction to the prospect of the common law being embodied in statutory form.
[4] At the start of the parliamentary session in 1853, the Lord Chancellor, Robert Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth announced his intention to the improvement of the statute law.
"So far from its being any part of the duty of the legislature to pass a declaratory statute as to expired and defunct Acts, such a measure would at best be nugatory, and perhaps mischievous.
[2] The work of the Board faced wide criticism from politicians, legal academics and commentators, who focused on the high expenditure of the committee, especially on the salary and motivations of the Commissioners and draftsmen, including Charles Henry Bellenden Ker, the proposed approach taken by the Board to proceed with consolidation before expurgation, and the lack of results to show for it.
Edward Sugden, 1st Baron St Leonards argued expressed concern about this informal arrangement, suggesting it was not an appropriate way to approach such an important task of law reform.
[12] The Board incurred expenses of £3,690,[13] which was subject to criticism by legal academics and commentators,[10] and by politicians, including Peter King MP and George Hadfield MP as part of an 1869 resolution criticising the expensive process of legal revision that had taken place over 36 years, costing the country over £80,000 without yielding substantial results.
[12] On 19 June 1854, upon the motion of Peter Locke King MP, the House of Commons resolved that "it would greatly conduce to the improvement of the Statute Law of this Country, if the preparation of "a declaratory Bill, of which the said special and detailed Report shall form the groundwork," were no longer to be delayed, and that such Bill ought to be forthwith prepared, for the purpose of being laid before Parliament".