U.K. to Finally Remove Or Update Laws Featured in Charles Dickens’ ‘The Uncommercial Traveler’

All or part of 328 Acts of Parliament masquerading as live laws are to be removed under the Statute Law (Repeals) Bill, which has its Second Reading today. These include laws on areas like workhouses, county gaols and the former East India Company.

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw said:

“Laws on turnpikes, workhouses, and the Peterloo massacre are rightly of interest to historians, but there is no need to retain them on the statute book. Obsolete laws can raise people’s expectations and invite costly and pointless legal activity. This is a necessary and overdue Parliamentary spring clean.”

Leading the debate Lord Bach said:

“The removal of these redundant and sometimes absurd pieces of legislation from the statute book help to simplify and modernize the law. For example they include six Acts to finance the building of workhouses in the London area, including an 1819 Act to build the one in Wapping mentioned by Charles Dickens in ‘The Uncommercial Traveler’. There are also 12 obsolete Acts relating to the affairs of the East India Company in the period 1796 to 1832.

“The Government is very grateful to the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission for the expert job they have done in preparing the bill.”

Other legal curiosities under repeal:

* Repeal of obsolete laws on the police including a law of 1839 requiring street musicians to leave the area if required to do so by irritated householders

* Repeal of obsolete laws on turnpikes dating back to a time when roads were maintained locally, with travelers having to pay a toll to cross a turnpike

* Proposals on criminal law repeals including an Act of 1819 passed following the Peterloo Massacre of that year when 11 people were killed in Manchester

This bill implements joint recommendations of the Law Commission and Scottish Law Commission. It was prepared on the basis of extensive consultation, and those potentially affected by the repeal of the provisions were given opportunity to contribute their views.

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