News in brief
A new Act designed to remove pointless and obsolete laws from the statute book has received Royal Assent. The Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2008, drafted by the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission, repeals 260 whole Acts and part repeals 68 others. Laws swept away under the new Act include some relating to tolls for turnpikes and to the financing of London workhouses— including one at Wapping mentioned by Charles Dickens in The Uncommercial Traveller.
