Section 23 – Edition of Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom referred to
122.Section 23 makes similar provision to section 22, but for references in Assembly Acts and Welsh subordinate instruments to Acts of the UK Parliament. It enables readers of Welsh legislation to determine, where that legislation refers to an Act, what “edition” of that Act is being referred to. As in section 22, the concept of publishing rather than printing is relied on.
123.Section 23 is equivalent to section 19(1) of the 1978 Act, but the citations to which it applies are described in more general terms. Section 19(1) refers to citations of Acts of the UK Parliament “by year, statute, session or chapter”. This was of particular value in a historical context; there were sometimes different editions of Acts and statutes, and in those Acts and statutes the numbering and order of provisions sometimes differed between the editions. However section 19(1) is understood to apply generally to all references to an Act of the UK Parliament. Therefore section 23 does not say that it is limited to cases where Acts are cited in particular ways.