STATUTES
| Date | 01 January 1957 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1957.tb00424.x |
| Published date | 01 January 1957 |
| Author | M. R. R. Davies |
STATUTES
ROAD TRAFFIC ACT,
1956
IT
is to be hoped that the Road Traffic Act,
1956,
will mark
the culmination of the present complex and unconsolidated mass
of statute law relating to the use and misuse of our roads. Little,
if
anything, is done in the Act
to
make the presentation and
arrangement
of
that law more comprehensible and less chaotic.
There can be
no
doubt, however, as to the far-reaching importance
of the Act both as an amending measure and as an almost limit-
less source of new law in the shape of statutory instruments to
come. A glance through the twelve pages of the Eighth Schedule,
which contains
no
fewer than forty-one so-called minor and con-
sequential amendments, will probably be enough to frighten off
all but the most determined and desperate perusers of the Act,
and the contents of the Ninth Schedule, containing the enactments
repealed, will instantly reveal the remarkable skill of the parlia-
mentary draftsmen in making an already intricate pattern
of
piecemeal statutory provisions more complicated and patchy than
ever.
The Act received the Royal Assent
on
August
2, 1956,
and
contains fifty-five sections and nine schedules. The various
headings are:-General provisions relating to road traffic
(8s.
1
to
18
and First and Second Schedules); Provision of parking places
(8s.
19
to
25
and Third Schedule); Provisions as
to
enforcement
(8s.
26
to
82
and Fourth Schedule); TraiEc Regulation
(ss.
88
to
88
and Fifth Schedule); Public service vehicles
(ss.
89
and
40
and
Sixth Schedule)
;
Miscellaneous and Supplementary Provisions
(8s.
41
to
55
and Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Schedules).
Regarding the operative effect of the statute,
it
is important
to note that, by section
55
(2),
the Act shall come into operation
on
such day as the Minister may by order made by statutory
instrument appoint; and different days may be appointed
for
different provisions. By the
Road
Traffic Act,
1956
(Commence-
ment No.
1)
Order,
1956,'
most
of
the provisions of the
1956
Act
which do not depend upon the making of Regulations by the
Minister were brought into, operation by November
1,
1956.
Although some forty-three enactments are referred to in the
1956
statute, much of the bulk
of
road traffic law
is
now to be
found in the Road Traffic Acts,
1980, 1984
and
1956.
These three
Acts are indeed ripe for consolidation but until this desirable and
necessary end is achieved the main task in reviewing and
1
8.1.
1966,
No.
1491
(C.
10).
44
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