Information about the Government's programme to repeal redundant laws.
A Statutes Repeal Bill was introduced on 6 September 2016 and enacted on 2 June 2017. It repealed 128 spent Acts, and partially repealed a further 9 Acts. All of the listed Acts and sections had been identified and certified as spent, meaning they had no or very minor effects, or they existed to achieve a regulatory purpose that was no longer relevant. By repealing unnecessary and spent legislation Statutes Repeal Bills make the statute book easier to navigate for users and easier to administer for departments. More pieces of legislation are likely to be redundant and, over time, more will become redundant, which will be addressed in future Statutes Repeal Bills.
Statutes Repeal Bills are a small part of an ongoing programme by the Government to keep the statute books up to date and fit for purpose.
Read the media statements by the then Minister for Regulatory Reform on the Beehive website: Statutes Repeal Bill introduced to Parliament (6 September 2016) and Statutes Repeal Bill passes third reading (30 May 2017).
You can read the Statutes Repeal Act 2017 on the Legislation website. Note that this Act was itself repealed on 1 July 2017 (in accordance with section 5 of the Act), because by then it had served its purpose and had itself become spent.
If you have any further suggestions of redundant legislation that could be suitable for repeal, please contact the Treasury at [email protected].