Introduction
Covering the Legislation to 31 December 2023.
1. Scope and arrangement of Table
The Table shows amendments made to Statutory Rules, which are in force. Rules, which are revoked, are listed with details of revoking legislation and are printed in italics.
Titles are not given for local or temporary rules made prior to 1984 and are noted as "Local" or "Temporary". Where no information is held on a rule, it is noted as "No details held by SPO". Prior to 1984 Statutory Rules, which were not printed, have simply been noted as "Not printed".
Commencement regulations are marked with their SR number and also commencement number.
2. Meaning of Statutory Rules
The term "statutory rule" covers the various forms of subordinate legislation included in the definition of that expression contained in art. 4 of the Statutory Rules (NI) Order 1979 (SI 1979/1573) (NI 12).
3. Definition of "expired" and "spent"
The terms "expired" and "spent" are defined below. These terms are more commonly used
in the earlier sections and were identified less often in later years.
The term "expired" refers to a situation where a statutory provision is expressed to have
effect for a certain specified period of time. When this period comes to an end, the
provision ceases to exist in legislative terms (except as an historical record of the law as it
applied during that period) and the statutory provision can be said to have expired.
"Spent" Statutory provisions often provide for a factual situation which will only exist, or
potentially exist, for a limited period of time, the length of which may or may not be
known. Usually, such provision is made to take account of difficulties which may arise
during the transition from the old law to the new. Once the factual situation for which
provision has been made no longer exists, or potentially exists, the statutory provision is
redundant and is referred to as "spent". A statutory provision may also be referred to as
spent if it amends an earlier statutory provision which is later revoked. These are only two
examples of situations where a statutory provision may be considered spent. It is
necessary in each case to look at the statutory provision being considered to see if it is, in
fact, spent.
