Consolidation of statutes
Commissioner
Lord Drummond Young, SLC Chairman
Team members
Susan Sutherland, Project Manager
Susan Robb, Solicitor
Consolidation involves the bringing together of several statutes in an area of law into one Act. Consolidation does not change the law. It is a way of tidying up the statute book and making it easier for people to access legislation. Instead of having to look up several Acts covering a number of years on a particular matter, the user has to look up only one Act. The result is to make it much easier and less time consuming for the user.
Bankruptcy legislation
The Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985, which forms the basis of the current legislation, has been heavily amended in recent years. The aim of the project is to bring the provisions together into a more rational and accessible form; one that will be easier for users, particularly practitioners and other advisers.
Consultation paper
Our consultation paper inviting views on a number of proposed changes to the 1985 Act was issued on 15 August 2011. The changes relate to matters of technical detail and are intended to remove anomalies, treat like cases in the same way or to omit provisions that no longer serve any purpose. The aim is to pave the way for a new and more accessible legislative framework governing bankruptcy in Scotland. We also invited suggestions for other amendments which would seek to tidy up (as opposed to reform) the 1985 Act.
The following drafts were issued along with the consultation paper:
- draft Bankruptcy (Scotland) Bill and table of contents
- draft Tables of Destinations and Derivations
- draft Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2011 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2011. The order, which we envisage would be made under section 104 of the Scotland Act 1998, would give effect to certain provisions of the Bill in other parts of the UK.
The consultation period ended on 30 November 2011 and we received a number of very helpful responses and additional suggestions for changes to the 1985 Act. We are now revising the draft consolidation Bill to take account of consultees’ comments. We are also preparing a report on the consolidation. We aim to publish that report, with the revised draft Bill, later this year.
For more information, please contact: susan.sutherland@scotlawcom.gsi.gov.uk.