Repeals and continuity of law
Continuity of law25
1
In this Article—
a
“the Orders” means the principal Order, the [1986 NI 8] Company Securities (Insider Dealing) (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, the [1986 NI 7] Business Names (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 and this Order;
b
“the Acts” means the Companies Acts (Northern Ireland) 1960 to 1983 and any other statutory provision which is repealed by this Order and replaced by a corresponding provision in the Orders; and
c
“the commencement date” means the date on which this Order comes into operation.
2
Where any period of time specified in a provision of the Acts is current immediately before the commencement date, the Orders have effect as if the corresponding provision had been in force when the period began to run; and (without prejudice to the foregoing) any period of time so specified and current is deemed for the purposes of the Orders—
a
to run from the date or event from which it was running immediately before the commencement date, and
b
to expire (subject to any provision of the Orders for its extension) whenever it would have expired if the Orders had not been passed;
and any rights, priorities, liabilities, reliefs, obligations, requirements, powers, duties or exemptions dependent on the beginning, duration or end of such a period as above mentioned shall be under the Orders as they were or would have been under the Acts.
3
Where in any provision of the Orders there is a reference to another provision of those Orders, and the first-mentioned provision operates, or is capable of operating, in relation to things done or omitted, or events occurring or not occurring, in the past (including in particular past acts of compliance with any statutory provision, failures of compliance, contraventions, offences and convictions of offences), the reference to that other provision is to be read as including a reference to the corresponding provision of the Acts.
4
A contravention of any provision of the Acts committed before the commencement date shall not be visited with any more severe punishment under or by virtue of the Orders than would have been applicable under that provision at the time of the contravention; but—
a
where an offence for the continuance of which a penalty was provided has been committed under any provision of the Acts, proceedings may be taken under the Orders in respect of the continuance of the offence after the commencement date in the like manner as if the offence had been committed under the corresponding provision of the Orders; and
b
the repeal of any transitory provision of the Acts (not replaced by any corresponding provision of the Orders) requiring a thing to be done within a certain time does not affect a person's continued liability to be prosecuted and punished in respect of the failure, or continued failure, to do that thing.
5
The generality of section 29(3)(b) of the [1954 c. 33 (N.I.)] Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 is not affected by any specific conversion of references made by this Order, nor by the inclusion in any provision of the Orders of a reference (whether express or implied, and in whatever phraseology) to the provision of the Acts corresponding to that provision, or to a provision of the Acts which is replaced by a corresponding provision of the Orders.
6
Nothing in the Orders affects—
a
the registration or re-registration of any company under the former Companies Acts, or the continued existence of any company by virtue of such registration or re-registration; or
b
the application of—
i
Table B in the [1856 c. 47] Joint Stock Companies Act 1856, or
ii
Table A in the [1862 c. 89] Companies Act 1862, the [1908 c. 69] Companies (Consolidation) Act 1908, the [1932 c. 7 (N.I.)] Companies Act (Northern Ireland) 1932 or the Act of 1960,
to any company existing immediately before the commencement date; or
c
the operation of any statutory provision providing for any partnership, association or company being wound up, or being wound up as a company or as an unregistered company under any of the former Companies Acts.
7
Anything saved from repeal by section 403 of the Act of 1960 and still in force immediately before the commencement date remains in force notwithstanding the repeal by this Order of any provision of that Act.
8
Where any provision of the Orders was, immediately before the commencement date, contained in or given effect by a statutory rule (whether or not made under a power in any of the Acts), then—
a
the foregoing provisions of this Article have effect as if that provision was contained in the Acts, and
b
insofar as the provision was, immediately before that date, subject to a power (whether or not under the Acts) of variation or revocation, nothing in the Orders is to be taken as prejudicing any future exercise of the power.
9
The provisions of this Article are without prejudice to the operation of sections 28 and 29 of the [1954 c. 33 (N.I.)] Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 (savings from, and effect of, repeals); and for the purposes of section 29(3) of that Act (effect of provisions repealing and re-enacting other provisions), any provision of the Acts which is replaced by a provision of the principal Order, the [1986 NI 8] Company Securities (Insider Dealing) (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 or the [1986 NI 7] Business Names (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 is deemed to have been repealed and re-enacted by that one of the Orders and not by this Order.