Statutory Interpretation
20/06/2025Jun 2025 – In Darwall and another v Dartmoor National park authority 2025, a ruling by the Supreme Court about the public’s right to camp overnight on Dartmoor is interesting comment about statutory interpretation, following on from Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart 1992.
The normal principles of statutory interpretation are to ascertain the meaning of the words used in a statute in the light of their context and the purpose of the statutory provision. In Pepper, the House of Lords established that the courts can, in certain circumstances, consider statements made in Parliament (specifically, in Hansard, the official record of parliamentary debates) when interpreting ambiguous or obscure legislation.
The principal legislation for lease renewals is the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Part II (as amended). Subsequent amendments are the Law of Property Act 1969 [interim rent]; Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 [privity of contract], Regulatory Reform (Business Tenancies) (England and Wales) Order 2003 [s24-28 exclusion / outside the Act]; Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 [home business] . As far as I am aware, there hasn’t been any need for statutory interpretation of the Acts and Order, but a considerable body of case law exists for interpretation arising out of the application of the legislation on qualifying tenancy expiry and renewal.
Currently, the Law Commision is consulting on reform of the LTA54 Part II. To date, it is likely that the Act’s model of secuty for qualifying tenancies will be unchanged. Also that the existing 6 month tenancy exclusion from the Act may be extended to about 2 years.
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