Legislation (Wales) Act 2019

Legislation (Wales) Act 2019
Act of the National Assembly for Wales
National Assembly for Wales
Long titleAn Act of the National Assembly for Wales to promote the accessibility of Welsh law; to provide for the interpretation and operation of Welsh legislation; and for connected purposes.
Citation2019 anaw 4
Introduced byJeremy Miles
Territorial extent Wales
Dates
Royal assent29 April 2015
Commencement10 September 2019 (parts 1,3,4), 1 January 2020 (part 2)
Other legislation
Amended byThe Legislation (Wales) Act 2019 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Regulations 2020
Relates toThe Legislation (Wales) Act 2019 (Commencement) Order 2019
Status: Current legislation
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Legislation (Wales) Act 2019 (anaw 4) (Welsh: Deddf Deddfwriaeth (Cymru) 2019) is an Act of the National Assembly for Wales, which is designed to provide guidance on how to draft and interpret primary and secondary legislation of the Assembly.

Background

In July 2013, the Law Commission announced that it was including a section on the "form and accessibility of the law applicable in Wales" as an advisory project in its twelfth programme of law reform.[1] In 2016, the Law Commission published its final report on the form and accessibility of the law in Wales, recommending[2]

Lord Lloyd-Jones, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, wrote a document supporting codification.[3]

The draft bill was introduced to the assembly in April 2018.[4]

Dispute with the UK Government

In April 2019, the Solicitor General of England and Wales, Robert Buckland, sent the Counsel General for Wales explaining the UK Government's position that certain provisions of the bill were outside of the legislative competence of the Welsh Assembly: mainly relating to Welsh statutory instruments made under acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.[5]

In June 2019, the Counsel General sent the Solicitor General, Lucy Fraser a letter explaining the Welsh Government's position that the lack of an interpretation act with provisions for bilinngual statutory instruments, made by the Welsh Government under monolingual acts of the made passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom was problematic.[6]

In August 2019, the Solicitor General, Michael Ellis, sent the Counsel General a letter reiterating the UK Government's position but explaining that the UK Government would not refer the bill to the Supreme Court.[7][8]

Provisions

The legislation has provisions:[9]

  • a duty to improve and maintain accessibility of Welsh law
  • making the English and Welsh language texts of a statute of equal status
  • defining how to interpret words and expressions, such as:
    • plurals and singulars
    • gendered pronouns,[10]
    • references to time of day
    • distances
    • grammatical differences
  • defining the day on which the service delivered electronically is deemed to be effected
  • defining how to use the Act together with the Interpretation Act 1978
  • moving the commencement of an act from a commencement order, published separately as delegated legislation, Welsh statutory instruments would now be able to amend the text of the Act itself to insert a date

Further developments

The first consolidation act passed as part of the programme to consolidate legislation was the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Twelfth Programme of Law Reform" (PDF). Law Commission. 23 July 2014. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 October 2023. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  2. ^ "Form and Accessibility of the Law Applicable in Wales" (PDF). Law Commission. 29 June 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 October 2023. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  3. ^ Lloyd-Jones, David (8 March 2018). "Codification of Welsh Law" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  4. ^ Cloynes, Tiffany; Hardy, Clare (27 April 2018). "Accessibility and interpretation of law in Wales". Archived from the original on 29 September 2024.
  5. ^ Buckland, Robert (25 April 2019). "Legislation (Wales) Bill" (PDF). Senedd Cymru. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 January 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  6. ^ Miles, Jeremy (26 June 2019). "Legislation (Wales) Bill" (PDF). Senedd Cymru. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  7. ^ Ellis, Michael (6 August 2019). "Legislation (Wales) Bill" (PDF). publishing.service.gov.uk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 September 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  8. ^ Cross, Michael (14 August 2019). "Wales' codified law plans will not face Supreme Court referral". Law Society Gazette. The Law Society. Archived from the original on 14 August 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  9. ^ Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament. Legislation (Wales) Act 2019 as amended (see also enacted form), from legislation.gov.uk.
  10. ^ Grabham, Emily (8 November 2020). "Exploring the Textual Alchemy of Legal Gender: Experimental Statutes and the Message in the Medium". feminists@law. 10 (2). doi:10.22024/UniKent/03/fal.950. ISSN 2046-9551.
  11. ^ Waddingham, Emma (14 June 2023). "Welsh law consolidation continues as new historic environment legislation becomes an Act". Legal News. Archived from the original on 14 June 2023. Retrieved 29 September 2024.