Local and personal Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom

Private acts are laws in the United Kingdom which apply to a particular individual or group of individuals, or corporate entity. This contrasts with a public general Act of Parliament which applies to the entire community. Private acts can afford relief from another law, grant a unique bene or powers not available under the general law, or relieve someone from legal responsibility for some allegedly wrongful act.

There are two types of private act: acts for the benefit of individuals (known as personal acts), and others acts of local or limited application (known as local acts). Private acts should not be confused with private member's bills—which in the Westminster system are bills for a public general Act of Parliament proposed by individual parliamentarians rather than the government.

About 11,000 private or personal acts have been passed since 1539, and 26,500 local acts have become law since 1797 (when local acts were separated from public general acts).^[1]

Personal acts

Personal acts developed as a means of allowing individuals to obtain redress from a specific wrong, or to obtain a benefit that was not otherwise available through statute or the common law. The granting of divorces, the naturalisation of (granting of citizenship to) foreigners, legal name changes,^[2] and changing the terms of a will, were often given effect through this means. In more recent years (since the introduction of general divorce and nationality laws, and the widespread adoption of the practice of using a deed poll to change name^[3][4]) the use of personal acts has greatly decreased. From 1980 they were only used to authorise six marriages between individuals who would not otherwise be able to marry due to being within the prohibited degrees of relationship, and no personal acts have been passed since 1987.^[5]

Until 1815, private and personal acts were not officially printed (made available to the public). Between 1815 and 1922, divorce acts continued not to be printed, whilst some other personal acts were.^[1]

Local acts

Local acts are generally for the benefit of organisations, or used to authorise major projects such as railways or canals, or to grant extra powers to local authorities.

However they are not limited to the above topics and can potentially deal with any issue. For example, the Dawat-e-Hadiyah (England) Act 1993 incorporated the Dai al-Mutlaq as a corporation sole, whilst the Harris Tweed Act of the same year established the Harris Tweed Authority "to promote and maintain the authenticity, standard and reputation of Harris Tweed".

Corporations and major projects

In the nineteenth century, Local Acts were used to create corporations, grant monopolies and (most frequently) for the construction of railways, canals and other works projects.^[6]

Their use has become more limited in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as statute law (principally the Transport and Works Act 1992) and statutory instruments have enabled many situations to be dealt with through other legislative mechanisms. Major public transport projects which do require the passing of a specific Act of Parliament now tend to be dealt with as hybrid bills which become public general Acts of Parliament.

However local acts are still used for purposes such as corporate restructurings, where the corporations in question have particularly complicated legal histories. Recent examples include the HSBC Investment Banking Act 2002 (which involved transferring one HSBC subsidiary's businesses to two other subsidiaries based on business lines) and the HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 (which involved among others rechartering Bank of Scotland, previously established by a local act, as a Companies Act public limited company and repealing most of the previous laws associated with it). Similarly, major changes to the organisation of universities or charities are sometimes also given effect through local acts: for example the University of Manchester Act 2004 merged the two universities in Manchester into a single institution.^[7]

Local authorities

The majority of local acts now passed are promoted by local authorities. Such acts are often for the purpose of giving the local authority additional powers to deal with such matters as street trading.^[8]

Parliamentary process

Bills for local and personal acts do not follow exactly the same parliamentary process as bills for public general acts.^[6]

Private bills are introduced into Parliament by the person promoting them by means of a petition. Because they may grant powers in excess of the normal law, a person, organisation or local community which could be affected by the proposed law can object to it, either through presenting a petition of their own or securing the support of a Member of Parliament to block the bill.^[6]

When the bill is sent to a committee of each House, the committee hears arguments for and against the bill in a way quite similar to a civil court hearing: the promoter (often represented by a barrister) has to prove their case and satisfy the committee that the bill is necessary, whilst any opposers will seek to demonstrate that it is not. If the committee agrees that the purposes of the bill are proper and desirable then the bill continues on to the next stage, and ultimately to the other House where a similar process is followed.^[6]

Local and personal Acts of Parliament have two distinctive features. Firstly, they are preceded by a preamble setting out the reasons why the act needs to be made. Secondly, they are published in separate series from public acts: whilst public acts are numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. in the year they are passed, local acts are numbered using roman numerals (i, ii, iii etc.) and personal acts are numbered using italic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.).^[1]

Scotland

Private legislation that mainly relates to Scotland is dealt with under a different procedure: that put in place by the Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act 1936.^[9]

The 1936 act (which replaced similar previous acts dating back to 1899) provides for petitions for private legislation which are opposed to be considered by an inquiry panel made up of two members of the House of Commons and two members of the House of Lords. The inquiry sits in Scotland, rather than at Westminster, and hears arguments for and against the proposal, before making a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Scotland. If the proposal is not opposed then an inquiry is not held, but the petition is still scrutinised by counsel to the Secretary of State.^[9]

If the inquiry's, or counsel's, recommendation is positive then the Secretary of State makes a provisional order. This order has no effect, however, until confirmed by an order confirmation act passed by Parliament. The bill for such an act normally skips the second reading and committee stages of the parliamentary process (as this has been replaced by the inquiry) and so takes up less time.^[9]

Since devolution, many matters which were previously dealt with by provisional orders now fall within the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Parliament has its own private legislation procedures which provide for the consideration of the bill and any objections by a Private Bill Committee of the Parliament.^[10]

In contrast to personal and local acts passed by the Westminster Parliament, private bills in the Scottish Parliament do not begin with a preamble and, when they have been passed, become part of the same series (system of numbering) as, and so are indistinguishable from, public Acts of the Scottish Parliament.^[10]

See also

• Private bill

Notes

1. Introduction to the Chronological Table of Private and Personal Acts, Office of Public Sector Information – retrieved 23 May 2009
2. Private Acts of Parliament used to effect a change of name, Deed Poll Office
3. Discussion about Baines' Name Bill, Hansard, House of Lords, 13 March 1907 vol 171 cc1-3
4. Discussion about Baines' Name Bill, Hansard, House of Lords, 14 March 1907 vol 171 cc162-3
5. Chronological Table of the Private and Personal Acts Part 33 (1910-1987), Office of Public Sector Information – retrieved 23 May 2009
6. Private Bills, House of Commons Factsheet L4, October 2008 – retrieved on 23 May 2009
7. Chronological Tables of Local Acts. Part 187 (1989-2003). Legislation.gov.uk.
8. See, for example, the Medway Council Act 2004
9. Order Confirmation Bills and Special Procedure Orders, House of Commons Factsheet L9, April 2008 – retrieved on 23 May 2009
10. Private Bills and Guidance on Private Bills, Scottish Parliament – retrieved on 23 May 2009