Deregulation Act 2015

104 Power to spell out dates described in legislation

(1) A Minister of the Crown may by order made by statutory instrument—

(a) replace a reference in legislation to the commencement of a provision with a reference to the actual date on which the provision comes into force;

(b) replace a reference in legislation to the date on which any other event occurs with a reference to the actual date on which that event occurs.

(2) An order under subsection (1) may amend the legislation to include an explanation of the date and may make other consequential amendments to legislation.

(3) An order under this section may not amend subordinate legislation made by the Welsh Ministers or by the National Assembly for Wales constituted by the Government of Wales Act 1998.

(4) An order under this section may not amend provision that would be within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament if it were contained in an Act of that Parliament.

(5) An order under this section may not amend provision that would be within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly if it were contained in an Act of that Assembly, unless—

(a) a Bill for an Act of that Assembly containing the provision would require the consent of the Secretary of State under section 8 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, and

(b) the provision does not affect, other than incidentally, a transferred matter (within the meaning of that Act).

(6) In this section—

• “Minister of the Crown” has the same meaning as in the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975;

• “legislation” means an Act or subordinate legislation;

• “subordinate legislation” has the same meaning as in the Interpretation Act 1978.