March 1998
When a new piece of primary legislation is enacted, either extending existing legislation or consolidating statute(s) and case law, it is often necessary to introduce the provisions of the new law over a period of time. This may be because it has an effect on the operation of other legislation (see 51.05 and 51.29) or because it is not practical to introduce a range of new measures on the same day.
Notes: ment dates51.34 Transitional and Savings provisions
Subordinate legislation in the form of Orders is used to address such a situation and the official receiver will have encountered Commencement and Transitional and Savings Provisions for, inter alia, the Insolvency Act 1985, the Financial Services Act 1986 and the Companies Act 1989 in recent years. Some are simply statements of a date on which various provisions of the new legislation will commence to take effect. Others may interpret the relationship between the provisions in the new law and those in the old law and the extent to which modifications have been made, or may even amend previous commencement orders. An example is the Companies Act 1989 (Commencement No 4 and Transitional and Savings Provisions) Order 1990.
As with all other subordinate legislation, such commencement, transitional and savings orders are made under authority of the parent Act which in this context is the new statute.
[Back to Part 5 - How to find subordinate legislation]