In the United Kingdom, acts of Parliament remain in force until expressly repealed.
Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the late 18th-century, raised questions about the system and structure of the common law and the poor drafting and disorder of the existing statute book.
[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] From 1810 to 1825, The Statutes of the Realm was published, providing for the first time the authoritative collection of acts.
[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."
This included efforts to modernise, consolidate and repeal provisions from a large number of earlier statutes, including:[4] In 1827, several acts were passed for this purpose, territorially limited to England and Wales and Scotland, including: In 1828, parallel Bills for Ireland to Peel's Acts were introduced, becoming:[5] Leave to bring in the Offences against the Person Bill to the House of Commons was granted on 4 May 1829 to the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Francis Leveson Gower MP and Sir George Hill MP.
[7][8] The bill had its second reading in the House of Lords on 1 June 1829,[7] introduced by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury,[8] and was committed to a committee of the whole house, which met and reported on 2 June 1829, without amendments.
[7][8] The bill had its third reading in the House of Lords on 3 June 1829 and passed, without amendments.
[2] The Board issued three reports, recommending the creation of a permanent body for statute law reform.
Recommendations made by the Commission were implemented by the Repeal of Obsolete Statutes Act 1856 (19 & 20 Vict.
Wood to expurgate the statute book of all acts which, though not expressly repealed, were not in force, working backwards from the present time.