NOTE AS TO EARLIER COMMENCEMENT ORDERS
(This note is not part of the Order)
Sections 14 and 15 and Schedule 1 (reports of courts and other bodies protected by privilege), together with section 17 (interpretation) and section 16 and Schedule 2 (repeals) so far as they apply to those provisions, were brought into force on 1st April 1999 by SI 1999/817. That Order applied to Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as to England and Wales.
All the provisions of the Defamation Act 1996 which apply in England and Wales and which were not then in force, were brought into operation on 28th February 2000 by SI 2000/222, with the exception of the repeal of paragraph 3 of Schedule 20 to the Broadcasting Act 1990.
All the provisions of the Defamation Act 1996 which were not already in force in Scotland were brought into force on 31st March 2001 by SSI 2001/98. That Order provided for the coming into force in Scotland of—
(a) sections 2 to 4 (except section 3(8));
(b) so far as not already in force, sections 16 and 17 and Schedule 2.