Editorial Update/Textual Amendments/Repeals/Higher Level Repeals
WARNING: This page is currently being revised - consult a Review Editor if you are not sure about the instructions on this page
Overview
Repeals at higher level can include groups of provisions, Parts, Chapters, Schedules or the whole item of legislation. For a whole extent, wholly in force higher level repeal where there are no substantive savings, the text can be completely removed and replaced with a dotty line. This type of repeal may be carried out by the Auto Repeal function on the Editorial Site. It is not necessary to check the amended provision out in XMetaL, unless you need to edit the auto annotation after the Auto Repeal has been carried out. If you need to repeal a range of provisions, you can use the Batch Repeal function.
For higher level repeals where the text should remain intact (e.g. where the repeal is for a limited extent, specified purposes or there are substantive savings), it is possible to carry out a retained text repeal in the Editorial System where brackets will be included around the retained text an annotation will be inserted at top level, or the repeal may be carried out in XMetaL by inserting the repeal annotation in a suitable location and leaving the text untouched (i.e. no square brackets around retained text). The choice of approach will depend on the type of repeal and is explained further in the Editorial Approach section below.
Higher level repeals may also come into force in stages that need to be applied incrementally across various PiTs. If you are not sure about any aspect of your higher level repeal, for example whether the text should be retained or not, or whether the retained text should be retained with brackets, or where the F-note should go, consult a Review Editor.
Before you carry out a higher level repeal
Before carrying out a higher level repeal, make sure that you have researched the effects spreadsheet to check the type of effect, the commencement status, the extent and whether there are any savings, so that you are clear about whether text needs to be retained or not, and if text does need to be retained whether it needs to be surrounded by square brackets or not.
Use the Decision-making Process for Higher Level Repeals and the Editorial Approach sections to help you to decide on the correct approach to take before you go to the relevant part of the Editorial Processes section, which will explain how to carry out the repeal in the Editorial System.
Note: Be careful to check that the TOES details are correct e.g. if the repeal has been recorded as for specified purposes in TOES that the repeal really is for specified purposes only and not just for a range of provisions. If any of the details are incorrect, TOES may need to be corrected (speak to a Review Editor).
Decision-making Process for Higher Level Repeals
| 1. Does the repeal apply to all provisions or only some? Is the auto repeal or batch repeal functionality therefore the best way to achieve the desired result?
However, before leaping in to use either auto repeal or batch repeal, consider the following… 2. Is the repeal of any or all of those provisions qualified in some way? Does it only apply for specified purposes, or in relation to a limited extent or territorial application, or are there substantive (as opposed to common form) savings that might make us think twice before dotty-lining the text and instead push us towards retaining text? 3. If the repeal itself is not qualified, then has it been brought wholly into force or is its commencement qualified? Is it only in force for specified purposes, or in relation to a limited extent or territorial application, or only in relation to some of its provisions and not others? Does the commencement order contain substantive savings which make us think twice before sweeping the text away? 4. Has anything already been repealed and, if so, what’s the best way to repeal the remainder? For example, if one or two provisions have been wholly repealed in a Part and then the Part is repealed (with no qualification), then we would just do a whole Part repeal and not repeal the remaining provisions individually. (After all, users can always see what the situation was before the last repeal in the previous versions). But if the Part repeal had been qualified as “in so far as not already repealed” then that forces us to work out what the remaining provisions are and then batch repeal them. 5. What happens next? Is there anything in TOES coming along in a future PiT (further amendments to our repealed provisions) which might make us think that we need to approach the repeal more cautiously and perhaps recognise that the savings we may have dismissed as common form are more substantive than we gave them credit for? Perhaps it may just be easier for the user to make sense of what’s going on if, rather than removing the text, we decide to retain the text for now in order to apply the future amendments to the saved repealed provisions? |
Editorial Approach
Whole repeals - Wholly in force
Where the repeal of the entire Part, Chapter, Schedule or whole item of legislation is wholly in force, covers the whole extent and there are no savings to be considered (see Caveat), you can use the Auto Repeal function. The amendments are automatically generated by the Editorial System when the Auto Repeal button has been selected from the High Level Update Details page.
Things to look out for:
1. Errors in the automatically generated annotation
For the auto repeal of a whole item of legislation, you will need to check that the correct type of legislation is referenced as the affected provision in the annotation (i.e. for secondary legislation, ‘Instrument’ may need to be amended as appropriate to ‘Order’, ‘Rules’ or ‘Regulations’ (See Citing Provisions in Secondary Legislation).
Note: for an Act of Adjournal, Act of Sederunt or Archbishops’ Instrument, the word ‘Instrument’ is correct and does not need to be changed.
Check that the commencing provision of the amending legislation is present. If it is missing, copy the ukl:citationsubref tagging for the operative provision and paste it into the correct position for the commencing provision. Then go into the Attribute Inspector and change the SectionRef to match the details for the commencing provision and delete the id number at the bottom so that this field is blank (this id will be generated by the system when you check the provision back in and needs to be unique for the link to work):
That way you’ve already copied the correct CitationRef which points to the affecting document referenced within the citation tagging. Make sure that the operative attribute is set to ‘false’ for the commencing provision and ‘true’ for the amending provision so that the amending provision link will be bold in the annotation. You also have to remember to change the annotation so it matches our house style and says, e.g. ‘regs. 1, 2’ instead of ‘reg. 1, reg. 2’.
2. Location of F-note reference, annotation and dotty lines
When you preview the completed amendment, you should make sure that the text of the repealed Part/Chapter/Schedule or whole item of legislation has been replaced by a dotty line. On opening the Parent Level from the ToC, directly below the heading there will be a single dotty line and following that will be the annotation giving authority for your repeal. On the Timeline of Changes you will see a new version has been created as at the date of the PiT of the repeal:
Whole repeal of a whole item of legislation
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2015/205/2016-04-01
Note also that the word ‘(revoked)’ has been added to the end of the legislation title in the locations that have been highlighted. The word ‘revoked’ should only be present in these locations where a full repeal has been carried out, not for a retained text repeal. The top title is contained within the dc:title element, which is part of the metadata and we are unable to edit this ourselves; only TSO can edit this. Therefore, if an item of legislation is inadvertently fully repealed when text should have been retained, and the repeal needs to be corrected, we will need to ask TSO to removed ‘(revoked)’ from the dc:title element when we make the correction.
Whole repeal of a Schedule
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/490/schedule/1/2017-11-30
An example of the format of one of the revoked Child Provisions within the Schedule is:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/490/schedule/1/paragraph/1/2017-11-30
The provisions have a single dotty line appearing immediately after the provision number. There isn’t an F-note reference, but the annotation still appears below. On the Timeline of Changes there is a start date as at the date of the PiT of the repeal.
Caveat: what happens where there are savings
If your repeal is wholly in force and whole extent (so that all the text will be omitted upon repeal) but you think the savings are so substantial that text should be retained, consult a Review Editor about how to proceed.
Where there are substantive (as opposed to common form) savings, we may need to pause before going ahead and removing and dotty-lining the text and take some time to consider whether text should be retained.
If the legislation is repealed but continued for specified purposes and at the same time there are large insertions as so continued, it is probably useful to website users to retain text so that it can still be referred to easily.
Also, even where savings appear to be common form we should consider whether there anything in TOES coming along at a future PiT (further amendments to our repealed provisions) that might require the text to be retained so that we can apply future amendments to the saved repealed provisions. For smaller amendments in saved repealed documents it’s probably sufficient just to mention them as appended commentary to the main repealed annotation.
Consult a Review Editor if you are not sure.
Substantive savings
If there are substantive savings that mean that text should not be removed, you should carry out a retained text repeal, for example:
Example 1: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/21/part/1
Example 2: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1972/68/introduction (whole Act retained text repeal that is subject to temporary savings):
Example 3: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/1119 (retained text whole Order, note position of closing square bracket for the retained text repeal when the whole document is opened - at the end of Sch. 9 and before the Explanatory Note):
Common form savings
Where there is a repeal with a common form saving, you should remove the text. If further amendments come along later, we can apply these as appended commentary to the repeal annotation for later amendments to saved provisions.
Example 1: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2007/577/introduction
Example 2: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2020/55
Whole repeals - Not wholly in force
A repeal may not be wholly in force straight away but instead may be brought into force incrementally over time. It may be brought into force incrementally in one of three ways, or in a combination of all three:
Case 1. It may be brought into force for some, but not all, of its purposes. Case 2. It may be brought into force for a part, but not all, of its extent or territorial application. Case 3. It may be brought into force for some, but not all, of the provisions it affects.
As the repeal is brought further into force our aim should be to ensure that the F-note telling the story of its coming into force is accurate and that relevant child provisions are dealt with appropriately at each stage.
Approach in each case the first time the repeal is partially brought into force
Case 1 - Specified purposes: If the repeal is commenced only for specified purposes, leave the text intact and insert an F-note at top level. The F-note will only be visible at the top level and not in individual child provisions.
But, where the repeal has been commenced for specified purposes in relation only to specified individual provisions, then (in addition to the top level F-note) we should perform retained text repeals of those individual child provisions as well and these should share the same F-note as the top level.
Case 2 - Limited extent (or territorial application): If the repeal is commenced only for limited extent (or limited territorial application), carry out a retained text repeal of words in the heading and cut and paste the closing bracket to the end of the Chapter/Part/Schedule, so that the whole text of the Chapter/Part/Schedule is retained with square brackets around it. The F-note reference will be situated at the beginning of the heading and a derived annotation will be viewable in individual child provisions.
(Please see the Warning below re high level retained text repeals).
However, where the repeal has been commenced for a limited extent/TA only in relation to specified individual provisions, then those specified provisions should be retain text repealed and an F-note should be inserted at the top level.
Case 3 - Specified provisions: If the repeal is commenced only for specified provisions, an F-note for the repeal should be inserted at top level and each specified provision should also be repealed in the usual way resulting in a dotty line (either individually or using the batch repeal functionality). The individually repealed provisions should share the same F-note as the top level.
Subsequent approach
Thereafter, as the repeal comes further into force, the top level F-note should be checked (and corrected if necessary) and action taken at individual child provision level as appropriate.
When the repeal is finally brought wholly into force it may be appropriate at that stage to dotty line the whole text. If the auto repeal button or batch repeal page is not available at that stage, then a story may need to be raised with TSO to help out.
Once the auto-repeal has been carried out you may need to remove the brackets of previous retained text repeals performed at both heading and child levels, as these won’t be removed automatically by the auto-repeal process.
At the final Point in Time, when the repeal is wholly in force, the higher level provision should look as though it has been wholly repealed: there should be no opening or closing brackets left and the text should have been removed and dotty-lined.
WARNING: When a higher level retained text repeal is brought into force in so far as not already in force, do not change the attributes for the retained text repeal from =true to =false as this will wipe out structural xml tagging as well as text and make the document incoherent. You need instead to carry out an auto-repeal or batch repeal to dotty line the text and check that the F-note accurately reflects the story of the repeal from start to finish.
This guidance outlines the most common way to approach these types of repeals. There may be variations that mean that a more tailored approach may be necessary. If you are not sure of the approach to use, consult a Review Editor.
Example 1: Incremental repeal of 1965 c. 64, which is repealed for specified provisions and extents beginning on 1/10/2006:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1965/64/2014-12-15
Note: The F-note reference is at the beginning of the enacting text. The text of all provisions that are not affected by the repeal is untouched.
To look more closely at what happens to one of the affected provisions, see s.8 (which is repealed on1/10/2006 for E. by Commencement Order S.I. 2006/2504). The text of the affected provision is retained with square brackets around the retained text:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1965/64/section/8/2006-10-01
Then on 1/10/2008, s. 8 is also repealed for W. by Commencement Order S.I. 2007/2386, bringing the repeal fully into force for the whole extent. The text of the affected provision is removed and dotty-lined:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1965/64/section/8/2008-10-01
Example 2: Incremental repeal of S.I. 2020/353, beginning on 11.7.2020 (Regulations revoked for the revocation of reg. 5 for all purposes and regs. 4(4)-(6), 7A, 10-14 for specified purposes):
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2020/353/introduction/2020-07-11
To look more closely at what happens to one of the affected provisions see reg. 4. Regs. 4(4)-(6), 7A are retained with square brackets and the top level annotation is carried through to the provision:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2020/353/regulation/4/2020-07-11
At the next PiT (13/7/2020), the Regulations are fully revoked:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2020/353/introduction/2020-07-13 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2020/353/regulation/4/2020-07-13
Note: The top level F-note reference is now located at the end of the title and the text of all provisions has been revoked and replaced with a dotty line. The annotation text has been amended to include the date of the whole revocation and the words ‘in so far as not already in force’.
Partial repeals - Wholly in force
Ceases to have effect
Approach: Carry out retained text repeal with square brackets (if you can), F-note at top level.
Example: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2016/346/2020-04-07
Note: all ‘ceases to have effect’ repeals need to be carried out with retained text in square brackets, whether temporary or not. Also note wording ‘by virtue of’ in annotation.
“Repealed for specified purposes” or “repealed in part”
Approach: Carry out retained text repeal with square brackets (if you can), F-note at top level
Example 1: Schedule repealed for specified purposes
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/schedule/5/2013-01-09
Example 2: Regulations ‘revoked in part’
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/18/2007-10-19
Note: In this example ‘revoked in part’ was changed to ‘revoked (except in their application to the profession of company auditor)’ to make it clearer to the end user.
Note: sometimes ‘revoked in part’ (or ‘repealed in part’) may have been recorded as the type of effect when certain provisions only have been revoked/repealed and it would be more appropriate to use the type of effect ‘revoked (except for…)’ (or ‘repealed (except for…)’) (see below). If you think the type of effect may need to be amended consult a Review Editor.
“repealed (except for…)”
Approach: Repeal the provisions that are fully repealed and leave the text intact for excepted provisions (with square brackets where appropriate i.e. where text is left intact for specified purposes or extent, otherwise leave excepted provisions untouched), insert the F-note for the repeal at top level.
Example 1: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2013/71/2015-04-01
In this example, the excepted provision (reg. 28) is excepted for certain purposes only, so the text has been retained with square brackets around it https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2013/71/regulation/28/2015-04-01
Example 2: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2013/207/2015-07-01
In this example, the text of reg. 9(2) has been retained (no brackets required as the text is fully retained) https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2013/207/regulation/9/2015-07-01
Example 3: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/501/2010-04-01
Limited extent or territorial application
Approach: Carry out retained text repeal with square brackets (if you can), F-note at top level https://editorial.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/548/schedule/1/part/IV/2003-04-01/revision
Partial repeals - Not wholly in force
- partial repeal commenced for specified purposes
- partial repeal commenced for limited extent/territorial application
- partial repeal commenced for specified provisions
Where the commencement of a partial repeal is incremental, the annotation for the repeal should be updated as the repeal is commenced further. You will need to check the auto annotation to make sure it reflects the story so far, and dotty line or add retain text brackets as appropriate.