Enactment (British legal term)

In the law of the United Kingdom, the term enactment may refer to the whole or part of a piece of legislation or to the whole or part of a legal instrument made under a piece of legislation. In Wakefield Light Railways Company v Wakefield Corporation, Ridley J. said:

The word "enactment" does not mean the same thing as "Act." "Act" means the whole Act, whereas a section or part of a section in an Act may be an enactment.

In Postmaster General v Birmingham Corporation, Roache LJ said "I am unable to accept the ingenious argument that the word "enactment" in" section 7 of the Telegraph Act 1878 "refers to special or ad hoc enactments dealing with specific works and does not refer to general enactments . . . No such limitation upon the word "enactment" is expressed, and in my judgement none can or should be implied."

In Rathbone v Bundock, Ashworth J said that in "some contexts the word "enactment" may include within its meaning not only a statute but also a statutory regulation but, as it seems to me, the word does not have that wide meaning in" the Road Traffic Act 1960. "On the contrary, the language used in a number of instances strongly suggests that in this particular Act the draftsman was deliberately distinguishing between an enactment and a statutory regulation: see, for example, section 267 and Schedule 18."

See also R v Bakewell (1857) E & B 848 at 851, Burgh of Grangemouth v Stirlingshire and Falkirk Water Board, 1963, SLT 242, Allsop v North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council [1991] RVR 209, (1992) 156 LGR 1007, DC.

In the Gas Undertakings Act 1929, unless the context otherwise required, the expression "enactment" included any public general Act, any special Act, and any provisional order confirmed by an Act.

In the Local Government Act 1929, unless the context otherwise requires, the expression "enactment" includes any public general, local or private Act and any rule, regulation, byelaw, order, or award made under any Act.

In the Local Government Act 1933, unless the context otherwise required, the expression "enactment" included any enactment in a provisional order confirmed by Parliament.

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