Rent Acts (Maximum Fair Rent) Order 1999
Readers who deal daily with residential lettings will be aware that the legality of the above mentioned order has been affirmed by the House of Lords in R v Secretary of State for the Environment Transport and the Regions, ex parte Spath Holme Ltd [2001] EWHC Admin 541; [2000] 3 EGLR 30.
Of wider interest is the majority view as to just how ambiguous or obscure a statutory provision must be before its meaning may be ascertained by consulting records of relevant parliamentary debates: a process that was not permissible before the landmark ruling in Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart [1993] AC 593. According to the majority (two of their lordships taking a less restrictive view), the fact that a power has been given in apparently open-ended terms does not warrant such recourse if its scope can be ascertained by reading the empowering provision in its social and factual context.
We have probably not heard the last word on this one.
Related item:
Rent Acts (Maximum Fair Rent) Order 1999
Readers who deal daily with residential lettings will be aware that the legality of the above mentioned order has been affirmed by the House of Lords in R v Secretary of State for the Environment Transport and the Regions, ex parte Spath Holme Ltd [2001] EWHC Admin 541; [2000] 3 EGLR 30.
Of wider interest is the majority view as to just how ambiguous or obscure a statutory provision must be before its meaning may be ascertained by consulting records of relevant parliamentary debates: a process that was not permissible before the landmark ruling in Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart [1993] AC 593. According to the majority (two of their lordships taking a less restrictive view), the fact that a power has been given in apparently open-ended terms does not warrant such recourse if its scope can be ascertained by reading the empowering provision in its social and factual context.
We have probably not heard the last word on this one.
Related item:
PP 2001/47
