These should not be confused with private member's bills—which, in the Westminster system, are bills for a public general act of Parliament proposed by individual parliamentarians rather than the government.

In more recent years (since the introduction of general divorce and nationality laws, and the widespread adoption of the practice of using a deed poll to change name[3][4]) the use of personal acts has greatly decreased.

From 1980 they were only used to authorise six marriages between individuals who would not otherwise be able to marry due to being within the prohibited degrees of relationship, and no personal acts have been passed since 1987.

One such example is the Ministry of Housing and Local Government Provisional Order Confirmation (Greater London Parks and Open Spaces) Act 1967.

[7] In the nineteenth century, local acts were used to create corporations, grant monopolies and, most frequently, for the construction of railways, canals and other infrastructure projects.

[8] Their use has become more limited in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as statute law (principally the Transport and Works Act 1992) and statutory instruments have enabled many situations to be dealt with through other, delegated, legislative mechanisms.

Recent examples include the HSBC Investment Banking Act 2002, which facilitated the transfer of one HSBC subsidiary's businesses to two other subsidiaries,[9] and the HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006, which facilitated conversion of the Bank of Scotland into a public limited company.

Similarly, major changes to the organisation of universities or charities may be facilitated through local acts, particularly when this involves the transfer of assets.

Such acts are often for the purpose of giving the local authority additional powers to deal with such matters as street trading.

[15] The 1936 act (which replaced similar previous acts dating back to 1899) provides for petitions for private legislation which are opposed to be considered by an inquiry panel made up of two members of the House of Commons and two members of the House of Lords.

The bill for such an act normally skips the second reading and committee stages of the parliamentary process (as this has been replaced by the inquiry) and so takes up less time.

[15] Since devolution, many matters which were previously dealt with by provisional orders now fall within the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament.