Preparation Tasks/Record Effects/Commencement Orders

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Introduction to Commencement Order tasks

When doing the record effects task on a Commencement Order (CO) (or effects research, which is essentially the same task but on already partially researched affecting documents) our goal is accurately to translate the drafter’s commencement provisions from a set of written, narrative instructions telling us how the commenced Act is being brought into force into a set of simple “coming into force” effects for each commenced provision or sub-provision. These effects will form the basis of our I-note information. At the same time – and given that the drafter quite often relies on rather vague formulations (e.g. commencing a provision “in so far as not already in force”) – we also want to avoid creating unnecessary points in time for online update, so we can’t just slavishly follow what the drafter has said. Therefore we need to be aware of how far the Act has already been brought into force prior to the CO we're dealing with (and therefore ignore provisions which have been wholly commenced already) and we need to research what the extent of our commenced provision is so we know whether or not it is now finally wholly in force as a result of our CO.

The completed and reviewed research done in the record effects task will then form the basis of a separate task for the same affecting document called “Commencing Effects Research”. This task will take a different perspective on what the CO is doing and allow us to investigate whether or not the knock-on effects contained in the commenced Act have also been brought into force as a result of this CO. This research is the basis of the commencement part of our F-note and C-note information.

All this research is the kind of work we used to do at the update stage. The Expert Participation Project (EPP) aims to simplify update so that external people can perform the more mechanical update functions and help us get up to date quicker. This means we've had to move the more intensive and complex research work to an earlier stage in our editorial processes and so it has become part of the record effects (and effects research) task.

Coming into Force Effects

Commencement Entries

Affected Legislation and Provision

This is the commenced Act and the particular provision being commenced. We want to provide a “coming into force” instruction for each child provision being brought into force, so we will break up larger parent provisions (e.g. Schedules, Parts, Chapters, etc) and ranges of provisions (e.g. ss. 1-10) into their individual constituent child provisions and give a “coming into force” effect for each one. We want to avoid entering “coming into force” effects for provisions that are already wholly in force, so we will also need to refer to the original commencement provisions of the Act and to earlier COs as well as make use of Halsbury’s Is It In Force? We also don’t need to enter commencements for provisions that have been repealed without ever being in force,, so be careful when ranges of provisions are being brought into force and check Is It In Force? for entries marked “Never in force (repealed)” or check our website.

Affected Extent

We need to enter the Affected (Provision) Extent to help us decide whether or not the affected provision being commenced has already been brought into force for its whole extent. If it has, then we do not require another “coming into force” effect.

Type of Effect

This will usually be “coming into force”, but in the case of Treasury COs for Finance Acts it may be “having effect as specified”.

Affecting Legislation and Provision

This is the Commencement Order itself and the specific commencing provision or provisions the drafter has used to detail his/her commencement instructions. This may be one or several provisions: e.g. art. 2(1), or art. 2(1), Sch. 1 Pt. 1, or art. 2, Sch. 1, etc.

Savings

Here we record any savings or transitional provisions that need to be cited because they limit the scope or application of the commencement. Where these are expressed in terms of the knock-on effect, we will need to look up the effect on Change to Legislation in order to find out which affected (commenced) provision they ought to be associated with. Where a transitional provisions schedule is very complicated it may be acceptable to add an entry for all effects. The general rule is: “If in doubt, bung them in!”

Comments for Editor

A Comment should be added for each entry where the commencement is not straight forward. In particular, where provisions are commenced “for specified purposes”, those purposes should be copied and pasted from the CO into the Comments for Editor column.

IF Date

The start date of the commencement.

IF Date Qualification

Here we record whether the provision is wholly in force, in force in so far as not already in force or only in force for specified purposes, whether it is in force for only part of its extent. If you see by your research that a “coming into force” effect of bringing a provision completely into force for its remaining purposes or its remaining extent, then if this is not obvious from the IF Date Qualification you should add a note in the Comments column to say the provision is “now wholly in force”.

IF Date Qualification Other

This is a free text column to be used in conjunction with the IF Date Qualification value “Other”. We should only use this where the IF Date Qualification doesn’t fit any of the options in the dropdown menu.

Amendment applied to database

When doing the effects research task on a CO from 2003-2011, there will be an existing “Appointed Day(s)” line for the CO itself and perhaps one or more Act Level Knock On lines (i.e. those with the type of effect “Commencement Order”). The “Appointed Day(s)” line should be deleted before entering your “coming into force” effects, but before doing so you should check whether it is marked with a Y in the Amendment applied to database column. If it is marked with a Y, then all your “coming into force” effects should be marked with a Y too.

Example commencement entries

Completing spreadsheets for Commencement Orders

The columns in the effects spreadsheet that the editor needs to complete when dealing with a Commencement Orders are detailed below.

Affecting Legislation

The affecting legislation is the Commencement Order that you are working on.

Affecting Provision

The affecting provision is the provision or provisions of a CO which states, for any particular affected provision or sub-provision of the commenced Act, how that provision is being brought into force. In other words, it is a commencement provision setting out the drafter’s instructions for bringing into force one or several provisions of the commenced Act. It may consist of just one affecting provision (e.g. art. 002) or of more than one provision (e.g. art. 002 Sch. 01, where art. 2 is an inducing provision and the Schedule is a table laying out the actual affected provisions being brought into force), but where there is more than one affecting provision they would only be cited together on one row where they bring one affected provision into force on one IF Date with one IF Date Qualification.

Where the same (affected) provision of the commenced Act is brought into force on different dates by different affecting provisions in the CO, then these should be treated as separate commencements and entered on different rows.

Affected Legislation

The affected legislation for a CO is the legislation that it commences, otherwise known as the commenced Act.

Affected Provision

The affected provision is the provision or sub-provision in the commenced Act that is being brought into force by a single instruction of the drafter contained in an affecting provision of the CO.

The usual rule is that each separate affected provision of the commenced Act brought into force by an affecting commencement provision of the CO should be entered on a separate row.

Where the drafter provides that a range of provisions (e.g. sections 1 to 10) is being brought into force, we must break this down into one “coming into force” effect for each of the provisions that constitute that range. We do this because we want an individual I-note for each provision commenced and not a general I-note covering the range.

Where a range is being commenced, we must check to see whether parts of that range are already wholly in force. This will often be indicated by the drafter using the formula “in so far as not already in force” or “to the extent not already in force”, but not always. Any provisions in the range which have already been brought wholly into force do not require another “coming into force” effect.

Where a whole Schedule, or Part, or Chapter, etc. is being brought into force by the drafter, this should be treated in the same way as a range of provisions and broken down into its constituent child provisions. This information can be gleaned from the “as enacted” version of the commenced Act on legislation.gov.uk.

For example, instead of Part 1, specify the child provisions of Part 1. Instead of Part 1 Chapter 2, specify the child provisions of Chapter 2. Instead of Sch.1, specify the child provisions of Sch. 1 even if those children are Parts (so long as those Parts do not themselves contain children). Instead of sections 1-5, specify s. 1, s. 2, s. 3, s. 4 and s. 5 individually.

Where a single provision is expressed to be brought into force “in so far as not already in force” or “to the extent not already in force”, we must check to see if any sub-provisions in that provision are already wholly in force. Any sub-provisions which have already been brought wholly into force do not require another “coming into force” effect.

Where an affected provision is not straightforwardly and precisely stated in the CO but has to be determined by the editor him or herself (for example, where only certain provisions of a range or in a Schedule are really being brought into force because some provisions are already wholly in force and the range or Schedule is being commenced “in so far as not already in force” or where a Schedule is brought into force “except for paragraph 3(3)”), then we should copy the drafter’s words of commencement from the CO on legislation.gov.uk and paste them into the Comments for Editor column. This Comment will then be accessible by the editor doing the Commenced Effects Research task later.

Where non-consecutive sub-provisions are brought into force with the same IF Date/s and IF Date Qualification/s by the same (affecting) commencement provision, these should be entered together on one row in order to minimise repetition in I-note commentaries. For example, 1998 c. 14, s. 0012(02)(03)(06)(07) are brought into force on 4.3.1999 for specified purposes by 1999 SI0528, art. 2(a), Sch. This is unlike the procedure we would adopt when entering normal textual/non-textual effects, where we would want to separate non-consecutive affected sub-provisions on different rows to more accurately reflect the quantity of editorial work.

Inducing or introductory provisions: be careful to check all the Schedules and their shoulder notes in the commenced Act to make sure that the drafter hasn’t commenced a Schedule by simply commencing its inducing/introductory provision without explicitly mentioning the Schedule itself. Each Schedule to the Act will indicate its inducing/introductory provisions in a “shoulder note” to the side of the Schedule title.

NB Where a provision was wholly commenced by an earlier CO but with savings, then a subsequent CO may come along and commence that same provision without those savings and we would want to capture this.

Effects Research task: please remove the existing Appointed Day line (i.e. type of effect = “Appointed Day(s)”) from the original data entry and, if that Appointed Day line contains a Y in the “Amendment applied to database” column then you must also mark all your new “coming into force” effects with a Y too. However, leave all the Act Level Knock Ons (i.e. the effects with the type of effect “Commencement Order”) in place.

Affected Extent

Unlike normal textual/non-textual effects, “coming into force” effects require us to enter an extent value for the affected extent of the provision or sub-provision being brought into force. This is the affected provision extent, i.e. the extent that the drafter has actually provided for the provision itself and not its affected effects extent or, in other words, the extent of the amendments the provision might contain. So the provision itself might be said to extend to E.W. (and this is the value we’re interested in), but its effects might be said to be “co-extensive” or “same as affected”. We may want additionally to enter the affected effects extent where the drafter of the CO is commencing provisions for extents which seem to be outside their original provision extent. In this case we should also add a Comment to highlight the unusual situation.

We can obtain this extent information from the extent provisions in the marked up commenced Act. I would suggest getting the information from there rather than from legislation.gov.uk or from ActiveText because the latter only give the widest extent of any particular whole provision and do not reflect the true extent of the sub-provisions.

We need to enter the Affected Extent at this point to help us decide whether or not the affected provision has already been brought into force for its whole extent. If it has, then we do not require another “coming into force” effect.

Again, the drafter will often indicate that a provision is already in force for some or all of its geographical extent by saying something like “for England in so far as not already in force” or “except in relation to Wales”, etc., but not always.

Where your “coming into force” effect has the result of making the affected provision wholly in force but the IF Date Qualification does not explicitly state this (e.g. rather than saying “wholly in force” or “in so far as not already in force” the IF Date Qualification says “for W.” or “for E.W.S.”, then a Comment should be added to the Comments for Editor column to say that the provision is wholly in force. This Comment will then be accessible by the editor doing the Commenced Effects Research task later.

Has the original extent provisions of the commenced Act been amendeed:

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

  Remove unnecessary savings where an affecting provision has been commenced by a “coming into force” effect that included a reference to a saving, but where that saving does not apply to all the effects contained in that provision. For example, S.I. 2005/2034, art. 8 commences 2005 c. 18 Sch. 16 para. 6 with a saving in art. 10, Sch. para. 4. This saving has been imported into all effects by Sch. 16 para. 6 in the CER spreadsheet.

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

However, if we look at the wording of the saving provision we find it says, “Despite the coming into force of paragraph 6(3)(d) of Schedule 16, as provided for in article 8 of this Order, … etc”, so it doesn’t really apply to all the effects by Sch. 16 para. 6 but only those contained in Sch. 16 para. 16(3)(d). In this case, we should remove the unnecessary savings from the effects by Sch. 16 para. 6(2)(3)(a)-(c) and (4):

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

If you’re unsure whether or not to remove the savings, then just leave them in.

  Check whether the conditions for “conditional” amendments have been met or not. For example, in 2011 c. 18, Sch. 2 paras. 8, 10 there are amendments which only apply under certain conditions and so are marked “(cond.)” in their type of effect column. These affecting provisions are commenced by S.I. 2012/669, art. 4(c). At this point, we need to check that conditions for applying the amendments have been met and add Notes and Comments to that effect. In this example the conditions has been met and the amendments can be applied. If the conditions for applying the amendments have not been met, then the core effect should be marked with an “N” in the “Amendment applied to database” column and a Note should be added to explain why the effect will not be applied to legislation.gov.uk.

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

  Add date to Suggested Commentary where the effect was originally prospective. If an effect has been entered with a Suggested Commentary and is subsequently commenced the date will need to be added somewhere in the manually constructed annotation thus, e.g. “(1.4.2014)”.


The examples shown above give an outline of what to expect, but there may be other scenarios that are not covered here. You should be on the lookout for these and consult where necessary.

These examples also show the value of copying and pasting the purposes into the Comments for Editors column when entering “coming into force” effects with the IF Date Qualification “for specified purposes” during the record effects task.

Finally, there may be occasions where the CO details have been incorrectly imported into the CER spreadsheet as a result of an error in the record effects (or effects research) spreadsheet. These should be corrected in your CER spreadsheet before raising a correction for the incorrect “coming into force” effect.  

Appendix 3: Glossary for Commencement Orders given to TSO

Prospective

A prospective (or “prosp”, or “prosp.”) provision is a provision that has not yet been given a start date (or, in other words, an In Force (IF) date). If this provision contains an effect on another item of legislation, that effect is also prospective and doesn’t have an IF Date. It just sits there patiently in the Statute Book, biding its time, waiting for a Commencement Order to come along and “switch it on”. Provisions and the effects contained in them may be brought into force partially or only for limited purposes by the commencement authority of the “as enacted” legislation that contains them, and they are said to be “partially prospective”. A subsequent Commencement Order or series of Orders may then come along and “switch them on” for the remainder of their purposes all at once or incrementally over a period of time. Some provisions may never be “switched on” at all and eventually get repealed having never been brought into force.

Commencement authority

The commencement authority is the provision or provisions in the affecting legislation that tell us whether or not the affecting provision(s) in the “core effect” is in force when that affecting legislation is enacted. In other words, it gives us the original “as enacted” IF Date and Qualification position. The affecting provision(s) may be brought into force at the date of Royal Assent or Made date (i.e. the date of enactment of the legislation), or at a definite fixed date in the future, or only partially or not at all (i.e. they are partially or wholly prospective). Occasionally, provisions may be deemed to be brought into force on a definite fixed date in the past (i.e. before the date of enactment), in which case they are said to be “retrospective”.

Commencement Order

An item of (secondary) legislation that brings provisions of an earlier item of (primary) legislation, which up until that point were wholly or partially prospective, into force. A Commencement Order is made under powers conferred by the commencement provision (see commencement authority) of the legislation to be commenced. A Commencement Order may bring provisions wholly or partly into force, for all or only some of their purposes and may also make savings or transitional provisions relating to their coming into force. For Extended TOES purposes, this is schematised in the effects spreadsheet as a “coming into force” effect on a commenced Act by a Commencement Order and in more detail looks like this: Affected Legislation = commenced legislation (e.g. 2013 c. 001) Affected provision = provision in commenced legislation that is being brought into force (e.g. s. 0001) Type of effect = “coming into force” Affecting legislation = Commencement Order (e.g. 2013 SI0001) Affecting provision = provision in Commencement Order which states which provisions of the commenced legislation are being brought into force (e.g. art. 002) Savs = provisions of commencement order that make savings or transitional provisions which somehow qualify the “coming into force” effects (e.g. with art. 003) IF Date = In Force date, i.e. the date on which the commenced provision is being brought into force (e.g. 01/04/2013) IF Date Qualification = the extent to which the commenced provision is being brought into force, e.g. wholly in force or in force only for some of its purposes, for its whole extent or for only a limited portion of that extent, etc.: “in force in so far as not already in force” or “Other” IF Date Qualification Other = where, for example, “Other” or “with effect in accordance with” has been entered in the IF Date Qualification field, this field allows us to enter free text to explain the IF Date Qualification (e.g. “except in relation to the repeal of s. 10” or [with effect in accordance with] “s. 51”)


For example, here’s what a complete “coming into force” effect might look like: 2013 c. 001, s. 0001 coming into force by 2003 SI0001, art. 002 (with art. 003) on 01/04/2013 in so far as not already in force (NB. This constitutes the “core effect” data for a “coming into force” effect)

Commenced Act

The commenced Act is another name for the affected (primary) legislation which is the subject of “coming into force” effects by a Commencement Order in the effects spreadsheet. If the commenced Act contains effects on other legislation then these will be drawn down as knock-on effects in the commenced effects spreadsheet.

Core effect

The basic textual, non-textual or coming into force (or having effect as specified) effect by an item of affecting legislation on an item of affected legislation. In legacy data before effects research has been completed, it comprises the skeleton structure, Affected Legislation Affected provision Type of effect Affecting legislation Affecting provision Following effects research or after record effects done from 2012 onwards, it also includes: Affecting Extent Affecting Territorial Application Savs (i.e. savings and other ancillary provisions) From TNA’s (or at least Richard’s) point of view and in relation to the production of Faiz’s key IDs it also includes the original “as enacted” In Force position for the effect: Commencement authority IF Date IF Date Qualification If Date Qualification Other However, the rdf seems to model this latter IF data as a separate commencement effect related to the rest of the core effect in the same way as subsequent Commencement Order IF Dates and Qualifications would be.

When we come to Online Update, the “core effect” information forms the basis of the F-note commentary in the affected Act for textual effects, the C-note commentary in the affected Act for non-textual effects or the I-note commentary in the commenced Act for “coming into force” effects.

Effects spreadsheet

The effects spreadsheet is the spreadsheet which the editor downloads in stage 1 of the record effects or effects research task and in which they enter “core effects” data in the Extended TOES format. This spreadsheet is then uploaded in stage 2 and if it contains “coming into force” (or “having effect as specified”) effects it prompts the system to allow the editor access to stages 3 and 4 and the commenced effects spreadsheet (see below).

Where “coming into force” effects have been entered in the effects spreadsheet, the affected legislation in that spreadsheet may also be referred to as the “commenced Act”. The “coming into force” effects in the effects spreadsheet form the basis of I-notes to be inserted in the commenced Act when that Act is allocated for Online Update.

Commenced effects spreadsheet

The commenced effects spreadsheet is only accessible to the editor in stage 3 of the record effects or effects research task if they have previously entered and uploaded “coming into force” (or “having effect as specified”) effects in the effects spreadsheet. The commenced effects spreadsheet draws down all the knock-on effects (see below) by the affected legislation (or commenced Act) which was the subject of “coming into force” effects in the effects spreadsheet. If the affecting provision of a knock-on effect in the commenced effects spreadsheet matches (or falls within) an affected provision which was the subject of a “coming into force” effect in the previous effects spreadsheet, then that knock-on effect should also import the Commencement Order details and the IF Date and Qualification that was entered as part of that “coming into force” effect. If this happens, that particular knock-on effect is referred to as a commenced effect.

For example, in the effects spreadsheet there is a “coming into force” effect: 2013 c. 001, s. 0001 coming into force by 2003 SI0001, art. 002 (with art. 003) on 01/04/2013 in so far as not already in force Already in Extended TOES, TNA have entered the core effects by 2013 c. 001 in its capacity as an affecting document on other affected legislation. These core effects will be drawn down into the commenced effects spreadsheet as knock-on effects. One of these knock-on effects is: 2012 c. 012, s. 0010 repealed by 2013 c. 001, s. 0001(02) IF Date = prosp When this knock-on effect is drawn down into the commenced effects spreadsheet, the system recognises that 2013 c. 1, s. 1(2) (affecting) matches or falls within 2013 c. 1, s. 1 (affected) which was the subject of the “coming into force” effect in the effects spreadsheet and imports the Commencement Order details and IF Date and Qualification into that knock-on effect, thereby transforming it into a commenced effect: 2012 c. 012, s. 0010 repealed by 2013 c. 001, s. 0001(02) on 01/04/2013 in so far as not already in force; CO details = 2003 SI0001, art. 2 (with art. 003)

Where for some reason commencement data is not imported into the commenced effects spreadsheet, the editor has the chance to add it in. Where commencement data is imported unnecessarily or incorrectly (especially in relation to repeals by partially commenced repeal schedules), the editor can change or clear that data before uploading the spreadsheet.

When the commenced effects spreadsheet is published following record effects or effects research review, the new Commencement Order details and IF Date and Qualification for that commenced knock-on effect will be associated with the existing core effect in the database and added to it to form the story of that core effect’s commencement. The original “as enacted” IF Date position (i.e. that it originally had no IF Date according to its commencement authority and was therefore “prosp”) will not be lost or overwritten; it will simply be added to.

As soon as a core effect receives an IF Date, it becomes available as a point in time for Online Update.

Commenced effect

A commenced effect is a knock-on effect in the commenced effects spreadsheet that has imported the Commencement Order details and IF Date and Qualification from a “coming into force” effect that was entered in the earlier effects spreadsheet. It can import this information because the knock-on effect’s affecting provision matches (or falls within) the earlier “coming into force” effect’s affected provision.

Knock-on effect

A knock-on effect is an effect contained in a provision of a commenced Act which affects or “knocks on to” another item of legislation. In other words, a knock-on effect is just another name for a core effect which is contained in the commenced Act in its capacity as affecting legislation. If a provision containing a knock-on effect is commenced then the knock-on effect itself is also commenced. It is then referred to as a commenced effect.

Act level knock-on An Act level knock-on refers to an item of legislation which is affected by one or more commenced knock-on effects which are contained in a commenced Act.

For example, where a Commencement Order commences several provisions of a commenced Act and all or some of these provisions contain knock-on effects, when the commenced effects spreadsheet is downloaded these knock-on effects will be transformed into commenced effects. If these commenced knock-on effects all affect one item of legislation (e.g. they all hit the provisions of 2012 c. 12) then there will only be one Act level knock-on, 2012 c. 12. But if the commenced knock-on effects affect several items of legislation (e.g. 2012 c. 12, 2012 c. 24 and 2012 c. 36 which are each hit several times by different commenced effects) then there will be three Act level knock-ons, which will appear in Changes to Legislation like this:

2012 c. 012 specified amended provision(s) Commencement Order by 2013 SI0001, art. 2 (with a Note saying “commencement order for 2013 c. 1”) 2012 c. 024 specified amended provision(s) Commencement Order by 2013 SI0001, art. 2 (with a Note saying “commencement order for 2013 c. 1”) 2012 c. 036 specified amended provision(s) Commencement Order by 2013 SI0001, art. 2 (with a Note saying “commencement order for 2013 c. 1”)

Before the advent of Extended TOES and the effects research and record effects tasks, we did not record “coming into force” effects by Commencement Orders in our legacy TOES data and had no mechanism to link up commenced provisions with their knock-on effects to form commenced effects. We left that kind of detailed research to the editor at the update stage.

In legacy TOES we only entered a line for the Act being commenced (the “Appointed Day(s)” type of effect line) and one or more lines for the Act level knock-ons (the “Commencement Order” type of effect lines). An Appointed Day(s) line in an allocated Update worksheet for an affected Act indicated to the Update editor that they must research the “coming into force” effects by the Commencement Order on that Act and action them accordingly, inserting start dates, I-notes and P-notes. A Commencement Order line in an allocated Update worksheet indicated in some way? Check the extent provisions of the Act in legislation.gov.uk and also check for unapplied effects in Changes to Legislation.

Affecting Extent and Affecting Territorial Application

These columns do not need to be completed when dealing with “coming into force” effects as the information they would contain is supplied in the IF Date Qualification columns. Of course, if the CO contains normal textual or non-textual effects then these columns should be completed in the usual way.

Type of Effect

The usual type of effect for a CO is “coming into force”. It should all be lower case and does not require an initial capital letter.

Some Appointed Day Orders and COs made by the Treasury under powers conferred by Finance Acts rather than bringing anything into force merely provide details about how certain provisions in a Finance Act are to have effect. In this case, the type of effect should be “having effect as specified”.

The expression “coming into operation” (commonly found in Northern Ireland legislation) is not a valid type of effect for Extended TOES purposes -- “coming into force” should be used instead.

Savings

Are there any savings or transitional provisions in the CO that somehow qualify any of the “coming into force” effects and so need to be cited? These should be entered against each relevant “coming into force” effect in the Sav column.

We should try to match these up as closely as possible with each relevant affected provision, however this is sometimes difficult to do if the savings and transitional provisions are quite generally expressed; in which case it would be acceptable to cite, for example, a whole schedule containing savings and transitional provisions against all “coming into force” effects by a CO.

Where the savings or transitional provisions refer to the knock-on Act and affected provisions rather than to the (affecting) provisions of the commenced Act, you will need to investigate the knock-on effects by the commenced Act in order to ascertain which savings and transitional provisions go with which commenced provision. You can do this by looking at Changes to Legislation on legislation.gov.uk.

If what seem to be transitional provisions make temporary amendments to a provision for a period of time prior to the date of commencement in question, then these may be treated as textual or non-textual effects in their own right.

Be aware that what may look like savings/transitional provisions may be standalone effects in their own right. For example, SI 2013/589 contains savings and transitional provisions in arts. 4 and 6, but in art. 3(1) it contains a “mod. (temp.)” on 1986 c. 31, Pt. IV.

IF Date

The In Force Date column should be used to enter the commencement date in the format DD/MM/YYYY.

For each affected provision we should enter an IF Date and IF Date Qualification, but we need to check the “as enacted” commencement position and any previous COs to establish whether a provision or sub-provision is already wholly in force. Anything which is already wholly in force does not need a new “coming into force” effect.

Where more than one IF Date is given for a commenced provision these dates should only be entered on the same row where they are provided by one and the same affecting provision. If the different dates are provided by different affecting provisions, then they should be entered as separate “coming into force” effects on different rows.

IF Date Qualification

The IF Date Qualification column is used to specify the extent to which the commenced provision is being brought into force, for example it may be wholly in force or in force only for some of its purposes, for its whole extent or for only a limited portion of that extent, etc.

The most common IF Date Qualification where a provision or sub-provision is not being brought wholly into force is “for specified purposes”. Where this is used the purposes specified by the drafter should be copied from the CO on legislation.gov.uk and pasted into the Comments for Editor column. If there is more than one set of words determining this, then both sets should be copied and pasted (e.g. “except for paragraph 3(3)” and “for the purposes of making orders and regulations”). This Comment will then be accessible by the editor doing the Commenced Effects Research task later and eventually by the update editor and reviewer.

There is a dropdown menu in this column which provides a list of common IF Date Qualification options:

  • wholly in force
  • in force in so far as not already in force
  • for specified purposes
  • for E.W.S.
  • for E.W.
  • for E.
  • for W.
  • for S.
  • for N.I.
  • for E.W.N.I.
  • for S.N.I.
  • for E.W.S. for specified purposes
  • for E.W. for specified purposes
  • for E. for specified purposes
  • for W. for specified purposes
  • for S. for specified purposes.
  • for N.I. for specified purposes
  • for E.W.N.I. for specified purposes
  • for S.N.I. for specified purposes
  • with effect in accordance with
  • for specified purposes and with effect in accordance with
  • with application in accordance with
  • for specified purposes and with application in accordance with
  • retrospective
  • retrospective and for specified purposes
  • retrospective and with effect in accordance with
  • retrospective and with application in accordance with
  • coming into force in accordance with
  • Other

Where the menu option ends with the words “in accordance with”, then the relevant provision(s) which contain the details should be cited in the IF Date Qualification Other column: e.g. [with effect in accordance with] “s. 51” or [coming into force in accordance with] “art. 1(2)”.

Where the option “Other” has been entered in the IF Date Qualification column, the IF Date Qualification Other column (which is a free text field) should then be completed in order to explain the IF Date Qualification. This option should be used where the IF date Qualification doesn’t fit any of the menu options. Some common situations where you might want to use Other are where you would like to enter qualifications like the ones below:

  • except for W.
  • except for E.
  • except for S.
  • except for N.I.
  • for specified purposes except for W.
  • for specified purposes except for E.
  • for specified purposes except for S.
  • for specified purposes except for N.I.

Where a provision or sub-provision is being brought wholly into force where before it was already in force only for specified purposes, then the IF Date Qualification “in force in so far as not already in force” should be used.

Where a provision is brought into force for its remaining geographical extent, whereas previously it was in force only for a limited portion of that extent (e.g. the affected provision extends to E.W. and it is being brought into force “for E.” having previously been brought into force “for W.”), then it should be given its proper geographical IF Date Qualification (e.g. “for E.”) but a Comment should be added to the Comments for Editor column to say that it is now wholly in force.

Legislation commenced on the date on which the commencement order is registered in the Channel Islands

Where legislation is commenced on the date on which the commencement order is registered in the Channel Islands, use the made date as the IF date and use IFDQ = “coming into force in accordance with [provision]”. Also add a Suggested Commentary to override the usual system annotation for the I-note annotation using the drafter’s wording as a model:

For example: 

S. 4 in force at the date on which the commencing Order is registered by the Royal Court of Guernsey by virtue of S.I. 2022/1180, art. 4

Comments for Editor

When entering “coming into force” effects by COs we want to use the Comments for Editor column to help us at later stages in the editorial process and in particular at the Commenced Effects Research stage.

Where a commencement is not straightforward or not immediately explicit in the CO, then the drafter’s wording in the commencement provision should be copied and pasted into the Comments for Editor column.

Some examples where this should happen are:

  • where a whole Part or Chapter or a whole Schedule is commenced (e.g. SI 2012/1319, art. 2(4) among other things commences “Parts 1 and 2 of Schedule 15” of 2012 c. 7, so for each of the 1 to 58 paragraphs of Schedule 15 for which we need to enter a “coming into force” effect we should include a comment saying “Parts 1 and 2 of Schedule 15” to show that the drafter didn’t specify them individually but all in a lump).
  • where the drafter has commenced a Schedule or a Part, etc., or a range of provisions with specified exceptions (e.g. “Schedule 3 except for para. 3(3)”. In this case we would enter “coming into force” effects for all the provisions of Sch. 3 individually except for para. 3(3), so that the entry here would be for Sch. 3 para. 3(1)(2) coming into force, and against all these provisions we would copy and paste the comment “Schedule 3 except for para. 3(3)”). You don’t need to do this where there’s a simple range (e.g. “sections 1 to 10”) as that’s self-explanatory.
  • where a provision is commenced only for some of its purposes, so in other words wherever the type of effect is “for specified purposes”. So for example, SI 2013/589, art. 2(3)(e) brings 2012 c. 19, Sch. 9 para. 17 into force for specified purposes:

(e) paragraph 17 so far as it relates to the repeal of – (i) paragraphs 11(2) and (4) and 12 of Schedule 9 to the Enterprise Act 2002, (ii) paragraph 33(3) to (6) of Schedule 25 to that Act, and (iii) paragraph 26 of Schedule 6 to the Serious Crime Act 2007

In this case, we would copy and paste the words from “so far as it relates” onwards into Comments for Editor and, with a bit of judicious editing, our Comment will read “so far as it relates to the repeal of (i) paragraphs 11(2) and (4) and 12 of Schedule 9 to the Enterprise Act 2002, (ii) paragraph 33(3) to (6) of Schedule 25 to that Act, and (iii) paragraph 26 of Schedule 6 to the Serious Crime Act 2007”. This Comment will be of help to the editor when this CO is allocated for the subsequent Commenced Effects Research task triggered by this Record Effects task and again later in the process when we come to do Update. It will also be valuable should we come to use our “coming into force” data to produce some kind of facility akin to Halsbury’s Is It In Force?

Be careful where the purposes are expressed negatively by the drafter, e.g. “section 11 except for the purpose of …” or “section 120 save for the purpose of …” and in these cases copy from “except for” or “save for” accordingly.

  • where the drafter has used a formulation like “in so far as not already in force” or “to the extent not already in force” and some provisions or sub-provisions are already wholly in force, so in other words where the editor has to determine exactly which provisions are now affected.
  • where the drafter has only partly commenced a repeal Schedule and so the IF Date Qualification “for specified purposes” has been used.
  • where a Schedule has been commenced by the drafter merely by commencing its inducing provision; etc.

Where the drafter has specified multiple purposes qualifying the scope or application of a commencement, then we should copy and paste the text for all these purposes into the Comment for Editor column. This may involve a minimal amount of editing of the text to ensure the purposes read in a logical manner.

Commencement Authority

The Commencement authority column does not need to be completed for “coming into force” effects as that information has been entered in the affecting provision column.

Where a CO contains textual or non-textual effects other than “coming into force” effects, these amendments should be dealt with as would happen in any other affecting document and the relevant commencement authority should be cited, if there is one. If the amendment comes into force by default on the Made date, then the column should be left blank.

Amendment applied to database

When doing the effects research task on a CO from 2003-2011, there will be an existing “Appointed Day(s)” line for the CO itself and perhaps one or more Act Level Knock On lines (i.e. those with the type of effect “Commencement Order”). The “Appointed Day(s)” line should be deleted before entering your “coming into force” effects, but before doing so you should check whether it is marked with a Y in the Amendment applied to database column. If it is marked with a Y, then all your “coming into force” effects should be marked with a Y too. The Act Level Knock On lines should not be deleted.

APPENDIX 1: EXAMPLES

(To be added)

APPENDIX 2: CRIB SHEET

(New page?)

APPENDIX 3: GLOSSARY FOR COMMENCEMENT ORDERS

(To be included under general glossary page? Could also give it its own page under Commencement Orders heading - no harm in duplication across the wiki?)


Commencing Effects Research

Introduction

Commencing Effects Research is the complementary task to the recording of “coming into force” effects on an affecting item of legislation that commences prospective or partially prospective provisions in another item of legislation (usually a commenced Act, but some secondary legislation may also contain prospective provisions). The affecting legislation is usually a Commencement Order, but other types of legislation may also contain “coming into force” effects.

During record effects (or effects research) we enter “coming into force” effects and this provides the basis for our In-force note (or I-note) annotations which will be added to the provisions of the commenced Act when we come to do update. During the Commencing Effects Research task we return again to the Commencement Order, but this time not from the point of view of how it affects the commenced Act but instead from the point of view of how the commenced Act affects other affected legislation. In other words, we are now interested in the role the Commencement Order plays in adding start dates and qualifications etc to the F-note or C-note annotations of textual and non-textual effects.

The task

The Commencing Effects Research task is created by the editorial system when, during record effects or effects research review, the reviewer publishes at least one “coming into force” effect (or, in the case of some Finance Acts, a “having effect as specified” effect) against an affected item of legislation (i.e. the commenced Act).

The editorial system recognises this type of effect and duly creates (1) a Primary Commencing Effects Research task, where the commenced Act contains effects on primary legislation, (2) a Secondary Commencing Effects Research task, where the commenced Act contains effects on secondary legislation, or (3) both of the above, where the commenced Act contains effects on both primary and secondary legislation.

Where an editor is allocated a Primary Commencing Effects Research task, they are required to download a spreadsheet (“the CER spreadsheet”) which contains the effects made by that commenced Act on primary legislation. These effects are the original “core” effects that we entered on Extended TOES when we processed the commenced Act on its publication. Each of these effects contains all the usual Extended TOES data about its extent, territorial application, savings and original in force date position at the time of its enactment.

In addition to the usual Extended TOES columns the CER spreadsheet also contains extra columns (“the IFCO columns”) which are designed to hold information about each effect’s subsequent commencement by a Commencement Order following its enactment. As an aid to the editor and to help speed up this process, this CO information is imported into the CER spreadsheet from the record effects (or effects research) spreadsheet where the affected provision of the original “coming into force” effect matches or contains the affecting provision of the effect that exists in the CER spreadsheet. Where the commenced provision is non-affecting then, obviously, there will be no CO information imported into the CER spreadsheet.

An example

For example, say that during record effects we enter the following “coming into force” effect against the affected legislation 2010 c. 25 and affected provision s. 26 by S.I. 2010/1277, art. 2(a):

[INSERT SPREADSHEET IMAGE HERE]

When we come to do the Primary CER task on S.I. 2010/1277 we expect the downloaded CER spreadsheet to contain all the effects on primary legislation by 2010 c. 25 as an affecting document. Among those effects we expect that all effects made by affecting provision s. 26 will have imported the Commencement Order details from the record effects task and used them to populate the IFCO columns.

2010 c. 25 contains the following knock-on effect by s. 26(1) on affected Act 2009 c. 13:

[INSERT SPREADSHEET IMAGE HERE]

Since the affecting sub-provision s. 26(1) is contained within the commenced whole provision s. 26 we therefore expect the IFCO columns in the CER spreadsheet to import the following information from the “coming into force” effect in the record effects spreadsheet:

[INSERT SPREADSHEET IMAGE HERE]

The effect by the commenced Act imports details of the Commencement Order legislation number, the commencing provision, the IF Date and IF Date Qualification, any savings or other ancillary provisions, and any Comments, Notes or Appended Commentary that were specified in the original “coming into force” effect.

As long as the original “coming into force” effect is correct, then the imported Commencement Order details should be correct. However, the CO information may need to be removed from or added to particular effects in the CER spreadsheet under certain circumstances which will be outlined below (see “Checking commencement details in the CER spreadsheet”). The automatic importing of the CO information into the CER spreadsheet from record effects is supposed to be an aid to the editor, but it is no substitute for careful checking and appropriate manual revision. This is the work that we used to do during the update editing process.

When the CER spreadsheet for the above example is reviewed and published, the IFCO data will be stored with the “core effect” as a “commencing amendment” and the effect will appear on the update timeline for the affected Act 2009 c. 13 as in force at the point in time 19 April 2010. When the effect is applied during online update the annotation constructed from the Extended TOES data should now read: “S. 3(3)(4) substituted (19.4.2010) by Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (c. 25), ss. 26(1), 52; S.I. 2010/1277, art. 2(a)”

IFCO columns

“IFCO” just stands for “In Force Commencement Order”. The IFCO columns in the CER spreadsheet hold the values imported from the original record effects spreadsheet for each “coming into force” effect where the affected provision commenced in that place is at the same time an affecting provision of an effect by the commenced Act in the CER spreadsheet. If there is more than one date to be imported for an effect’s affecting provision, then more than one set of IFCO columns will be populated. The number of sets of IFCO columns expands automatically to cope with an increase in the number of IF Dates for any particular effect.

IFCO Date Commencing Legislation

This column imports the affecting legislation value from the “coming into force” effect in the record effects spreadsheet. For example, “2010 SI1277”

IFCO Date Commencing Provision

This column imports the affecting provision value from the “coming into force” effect in the record effects spreadsheet. For example, “art. 002(a)”.

IFCO Date Sav

This column imports details of any savings or ancillary provisions mentioned in the Sav column of the “coming into force” effect in the record effects spreadsheet.

IFCO Date Comments for Editor

This column imports details of comments added in the Comments for Editor column of the “coming into force” effect in the record effects spreadsheet.

IFCO Date Notes

This column imports details of any notes for the general public added in the Notes column of the “coming into force” effect in the record effects spreadsheet.

IFCO Date

This column imports the IF Date value from the “coming into force” effect in the record effects spreadsheet. For example, “19/04/2010”.

IFCO Date Qualification

This column imports the IF Date Qualification value from the “coming into force” effect in the record effects spreadsheet. For example, “wholly in force”.

IFCO Date Other Qualification

This column imports the IF Date Other Qualification value from the “coming into force” effect in the record effects spreadsheet where the editor entered “Other” in IF Date Qualification column and then typed out a free text qualification.

IFCO Date Appended Commentary

This column imports the Appended Commentary value from the “coming into force” effect in the record effects spreadsheet where the editor has added those details in the Appended Commentary column column.  

Checking commencement details in the CER spreadsheet

When performing the CER task you should have to hand a copy of the commenced Act and a copy of the Commencement Order.

You should also refer to Halsbury’s Is It In Force? in order to compare our commencement data with theirs as a quality control measure and to quickly check whether a purportedly commenced provision has in fact already been repealed.

Download the CER spreadsheet from the editorial website and adjust column sizes and hide unnecessary columns as required to enable you to view the spreadsheet more easily.

Remember that where CER tasks have already been performed for previous COs on your commenced Act, the previous commencement details will be visible to you and the commencement details you are interested in may appear further to the right of the page in IFCO 2 or 3, etc rather than in IFCO 1. It is your job to correct only the CO information connected with the present Commencement Order you are working on. You should not change CO information for earlier or (more rarely) later Commencement Orders, which have already been checked and reviewed.

Go through the Commencement Order commencement by commencement to check whether the correct details have been imported for each commenced affecting provision.

Where no affecting provisions in the commenced Act have been commenced by your Commencement Order, then you would expect no new CO details to be imported into the CER spreadsheet (e.g. S.I. 2010/1278, art. 2 commences 2009 c. 13, s. 7 on 7.5.2010, but that section is non-affecting and therefore does not appear anywhere on the Affecting Provision column of the Primary CER spreadsheet for that CO).   Add missing commencement details where these have not been imported. The usual scenarios where commencement details will be missing are:

1. Where the commenced effect is an unnumbered repeal entry in a repeal Schedule. You will need to enter the CO details for all commenced repeals contained in repeal Schedules manually from scratch. For example, S.I. 2005/2034, art. 8 commences the repeal entry in 2005 c. 18, Sch. 19 Pt. 4 for “paragraph 66 of Schedule 7 to the Local Government Act 2003” and that entry is not part of a “double repeal”. The CO details will not be imported into the CER spreadsheet for that repeal entry:

[INSERT SPREADSHEET IMAGE HERE]

The editor must add the CO details for this repeal manually:

[INSERT SPREADSHEET IMAGE HERE]

Double repeals In the case of “double repeals” the CER spreadsheet will usually import their commencement details from the “coming into force” effect that hits their main body affecting provision, so in these cases you will need to add in the commencing provision that independently commences the repeal Schedule entry (see para. 2 below).

Where a “double repeal” is already wholly in force as a result of its main body affecting provision being commenced in full by an earlier CO and then a later CO also brings into force the repeal schedule for that entry, then no further CO details need to be added in the CER for that core effect. At most a Comment may be added referring to the commencement of the repeal schedule.

2. Where an effect has multiple affecting provisions (for example, it may be a range). For example, S.I. 2010/1277, art. 2(a) commences 2010 c. 25, s. 26 and art. 2(c) independently commences Sch. 3; however, because the effect in the CER spreadsheet has multiple affecting provisions (“s. 26(2) Sch. 3”) the commencing provision “art. 2(c)” has not been imported and must be added by the editor:

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

(The above is similar to what the editor would need to do in the case of a “double repeal” where the commencing provision that independently commences the repeal Schedule will not be imported and so must be added manually.)

3. Where the original affecting provision was not entered in sufficient detail down to its lowest affecting sub-provision and the CO commences specifically this missing lowest level. The CER import will capture all children under the umbrella of a commenced parent, but it would be illogical to commence a parent level where only a child has been brought into force. So, for example, S.I. 2011/46, art. 3(b)(ii) commences 2010 c. 25, Sch. 7 para. 5(2)(b). When we did the research effects task on 2010 c. 25, we mistakenly stated that two effects were by Sch. 7 para. 5(2):

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

However, they should have been entered correctly as follows:

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

This mistake led to the CER spreadsheet not importing the CO details for the effect by Sch. 7 para. 5(2)(b). The editor therefore had to add them in manually and correct the affecting provisions.

4. Where the commenced provisions and sub-provisions in the “coming into force” effect are difficult for the system to translate sensibly, e.g. “s. 0012(02)(t)(v)” where the sub-provision (v) is ambiguous and could be either the roman numeral (v) beneath (t) in the hierarchy and belonging to it, or the letter (v) belonging to the same level of the hierarchy as (t).

5. Where there are other types of errors in the original affecting provision, for example a missing bracket before or after a sub-provision.   Change IF Date Qualifications where necessary. This may happen where a provision has been commenced “for specified purposes” only but those purposes do not limit the scope of the commencement of an effect contained in that provision. For example, 2005 c. 18, s. 105 is commenced for E. for specified purposes on 1.9.2005 by S.I. 2005/2034, art. 4. Those purposes are: “to the extent that it inserts subsections (1), (2) and (5) of section 28A in the Education Act 2002”. S. 105 contains a normal insertion of s. 28A into 2002 c. 32 and this has correctly imported the IF Date Qualification “for E. for specified purposes” because it is not yet wholly in force. However, it also contains a knock-on effect against 1996 c. 56, s. 1(4) by the inserted s. 28A(5). Since this effect is contained in a part of the provision that is wholly in force for E. then its IF Date Qualification should be changed to “for E.”

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

Another scenario may be where a provision has been commenced for E.W. and its provision extent is E.W. and so we have (rightly) stated that the “coming into force” effect for that affected provision is “wholly in force” at the record effects stage. Where this is imported into the CER spreadsheet, but the affecting extent of the effect made by that provision is in fact “Same as affected” then we need to check the extent of the affected provision on legislation.gov.uk and, if necessary, change the IF Date Qualification of the effect to “for E.W.” if it seems clear the drafter did not intend to commence the whole effect.

A further scenario is where an effect, for example the repeal of a whole Part, Chapter, or Schedule, or a range of whole provisions (e.g. ss. 1-10), is commenced for specified purposes and those purposes are that only some of these repeals are actually brought into force at present. The IF Date Qualification should be changed from “for specified purposes” to “Other” and in the free text column next to it something like “for the purpose of the repeal of ss. 1-3, 7-10” or “for the repeal of ss. 1-3, 7-10” should be added manually. [NB: where a range of sub-provisions is the subject of the effect and that effect is only partially commenced, then leaving the IFDQ as “for specified purposes” is correct].

For example, S.I. 2007/3505, arts. 2(c) and 3(a) commence a couple of insertions of ranges of whole provisions by 2007 c. 25, ss. 2, 17. However, the insertions are not commenced completely, but only for the insertion of certain provisions within the ranges. On the I-note side we correctly used the IF Date Qualification “for specified purposes” in the coming into force effects and therefore this has been imported into the CER task as follows:

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

While this is not wrong, it will be more helpful to the update editor who will be applying the effect (and to the eventual reader of the annotation) to change the IF Date Qualification to “Other” and to describe the limited commencement in more detail in the IFDQ Other column. So in this case the commencement details were changed as follows:

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

So the final annotations would end up reading like this:

“Ss. 18A-18C inserted (31.1.2008 for the insertion of s. 18A(2)-(4)) by Further Education and Training Act 2007 (c. 25), ss. 2, 32(5); S.I. 2007/3505, art. 3(a)” “Ss. 56A-56C inserted (31.1.2008 for the insertion of s. 56B) by Further Education and Training Act 2007 (c. 25), ss. 17, 32(5); S.I. 2007/3505, art. 2(c)”

Check the extent of affected provisions where the effect is “co-extensive” (i.e. Same as affected) and brought into force by a CO for a seemingly narrow jurisdiction. For example, where an affecting Act generally extends to the UK but its amendments and repeals are said to be “co-extensive” and a CO comes along and commences one of its effects “for E.W.”, if that effect’s affected provision extent is in fact only E.W. then that effect is in fact “wholly in force” and not just in force “for E.W.”. If this is the case, then change the IF Date Qualification accordingly.

[ADD AN EXAMPLE HERE]

  Remove false commencements where these have been imported incorrectly.

The usual scenario where this will happen is where a provision or sub-provision is commenced “for specified purposes” and those purposes do not include a portion of the effects made by that provision or sub-provision. For example, the commenced provision may contain more than one effect and not all the effects are commenced, or the commenced provision may contain knock-on effects not all of which are commenced. The IFCO cell values for these un-commenced effects should be removed by selecting the unwanted cells and choosing “clear content”. For example, S.I. 2005/2034, art. 4 commences 2005 c. 18, Sch. 5 para. 3(8) on 1.9.2005 for E. for specified purposes, i.e. “except to the extent that it substitutes sub-paragraph (1)(b), sub-paragraph (2)(b)(ii) and (3)(b) in paragraph 6 of Schedule 7 to the Learning and Skills Act 2000”. This has resulted in CO details being imported into all the effects by affecting provision “Sch. 5 para. 3(8)” in the CER spreadsheet. However, some of those effects are knock-on effects by 2000 c. 21, Sch. 7 para. 6(3)(b) as substituted by 2005 c. 18, Sch. 5 para. 8(c) and these are specifically not commenced by the wording of the purposes.

Otherwise a false commencement will occur if a “coming into force” effect has been incorrectly entered against an affecting provision that is already wholly in force or not yet in force. In such cases, the CO details should be removed from the CER spreadsheet and the “coming into force” effect should be corrected via the Corrections task after the CER spreadsheet has been reviewed.

[INSERT SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE HERE]

The CO details for these effects must be manually removd to the Update editor that they must research how the Commencement Order commenced an existing “core effect” on their affected Act and then action that accordingly by adding the IF Date and Commencement Order details to the commentary for that effect.

Now we have the facility to transpose “coming into force” effects in the effects spreadsheet into commenced knock-on effects in the commenced effects spreadsheet, we also have the ability to produce an accurate record of Act level knock-ons for a particular Commencement Order for the purposes of Changes to Legislation on legislation.gov.uk. However, the code for this does not seem to be working properly at present and it is doubtful whether it is necessary at all in effects research where we already possess this Act level knock-on information in our legacy data anyway. It will be useful in the record effects task, but these Act level knock-on effects will need to be accessible after the Online Update task has been completed to enable us to mark them as applied.

I-note commentary

In Online Update an I-note (or In force note) commentary is a commentary inserted into a provision that tells the reader when and how that provision has come into force. When primary legislation is first published to legislation.gov.uk, TNA (in a process called Initial Edit) work out which provisions are wholly in force, which are partially in force and which are prospective and, where necessary, add start dates and insert I-note commentaries explaining the In force position. This I-note information is then added to as subsequent Commencement Orders come along containing “coming into force” effects affecting the commenced Act.

For example, at Initial Edit on the new editorial system we might insert a commentary that says:

“S. 1 not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 50”, or “S. 1 in force for specified purposes at Royal Assent, see s. 50”

(where s. 50 is the commencement authority)

Then when a Commencement Order comes along which contains a “coming into force” effect for s. 1 stating that it is in force in so far as not already in force at 1.4.2013, we would inserted a further I-note in the same provision that states: “S. 1 in force in so far as not already in force at 1.4.2013 by S.I. 2013/1, art. 2”


C-note commentary

In Online Update a C-note (or Cross note) commentary is a commentary inserted into a provision that is affected by a non-textual effect. We only intend to apply C-notes when the core effect has been supplied with an IF Date. If at the date of enactment there is no IF Date, the core effect is prospective and no point in time for update will exist. When a Commencement Order comes along and gives the core effect an IF Date it then becomes available as a point in time for Online Update and will produce a commentary like this in the affected legislation:

“S. 21 applied (with modifications) (1.4.2013) by Richard’s Example Act 2013 (c. 1), ss. 1(3), 50; S.I. 2003/1, art. 2 (with art. 3)”

F-note commentary

In Online Update an F-note (or Footnote) commentary is a commentary that accompanies an amendment to a provision that is affected by a textual amendment. We only intend to apply textual amendments and therefore F-notes when the core effect has been supplied with an IF Date. If at the date of enactment there is no IF Date, the core effect is prospective and no point in time for update will exist. When a Commencement Order comes along and gives the core effect an IF Date it then becomes available as a point in time for Online Update and will produce a commentary like this in the affected legislation:

“S. 10 repealed (1.4.2013) by Richard’s Example Act 2013 (c. 1), ss. 1(2), 50; S.I. 2003/1, art. 2 (with art. 3)”

P-note commentary

In our traditional update a P-note (or Power note) commentary is a commentary inserted into the commencement provision (see commencement authority) of a commenced Act to briefly explain when and how the power to bring provisions into force by a Commencement Order has been exercised by the appropriate authority. P-notes are a way of TNA avoiding the task of inserting an I-note into every single provision of the commenced Act -- which, with our present editorial tools, is extremely arduous. TNA currently only inserts I-notes into provisions that are not fully commenced on one date or whose commencement is not straightforward. The P-note explains to the reader how provisions which were prospective when the legislation was originally enacted came by their start dates as a result of subsequent Commencement Orders. For example, in s. 431 of the Financial Services and markets Act 2000 (c. 8) there are the following P-notes:

S. 431(2) power partly exercised: 25.2.2001 appointed for specified provisions by S.I. 2001/516, art. 2, Sch. S. 431(2) power partly exercised: 30.4.2001 appointed for specified provisions by S.I. 2001/1282, art. 2 S. 431(2) power partly exercised: 18.6.2001 appointed for specified provisions by S.I. 2001/1820, art. 2, Sch. S. 431(2) power partly exercised: 20.7.2001 and 3.9.2001 appointed for specified provisions by S.I. 2001/2632, art. 2,Sch. S. 431(2) power partly exercised: 19.10.2001 appointed for specified provisions by S.I. 2001/3436, art. 2 S. 431(2) power partly exercised: different dates appointed for specified provisions by S.I. 2001/3538, art. 2

Online Update will make these kinds of P-notes a thing of the past by enabling TNA to automatically insert I-notes in all the relevant provisions of a commenced Act in one action.

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