Statute Law Revision Act (with its variations) is a stock short title which has been used in Antigua, Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Ghana, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa and the United Kingdom, for Acts with the purpose of statute law revision.
[3] Under the standing orders of both Houses of Parliament, Statute Law Revision Bills must be referred to the Joint Committee on Consolidation etc.
[6] The scope of Statute Law Revision Bills is confined to the repeal of obsolete, spent, unnecessary or superseded enactments.
The schedule is intended to comprise (as the preamble to the Bill states) enactments which have ceased to be in force, otherwise than by express specific repeal, and also such parts of titles, preambles, recitals, and enacting words as are unnecessary and intended to be omitted in future editions of the Statutes under the authority of the Bill.
[13] The following Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom repealed enactments extending to the Isle of Man: The Westbury saving, named for its proponent Lord Westbury, was an increasingly complex saving provision that was included in all Statute Law Revision Acts from 1861 until 1953, and which reached its final standardised form in the Statute Law Revision (No.
[14] The reason for its inclusion was as a precautionary measure, intended to prevent any substantive changes to the law arising out of any repeals and to confine the Acts to the administrative function of clearing dead wood from the statute book.
However, the Westbury saving's complexity and wide reach gave it a reputation for making the law uncertain[19] and inaccessible (due to the fact that the repealed provisions would not be included in any revised edition of the statutes).