Bonfire of 'dead wood statutes' to claim 800 obsolete laws Obsolete provisions dating back to the fourteenth century have been identified by the Law Commission for England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission. They are due to be repealed under the Statue Law (Repeals) Bill this summer. They include a 1710 Act to raise coal duty to pay for 50 new churches in London, laws governing the British railway network in India and an 1800 Act to hold a lottery to win the £30,000 Pigot Diamond. Laws relating to the City of Dublin, drawn up prior to Irish independence, and a 1696 turnpike Act to repair the roads between Reigate and Crawley will also go. The earliest repeal is a set of Statutes of the Exchequer from around 1322. The latest is part of the Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Act of 2010. Sir James Munby, chairman of the Law Commission for England and Wales, said: "Getting rid of statutory dead wood helps to simplify and modernise our law, making it more intelligible. It saves time and costs for lawyers and others who need to know what the law actually is, and makes it easier for citizens to access justice. This report and draft Bill are a great achievement for the Law Commissions. We are committed to ridding the statute book of meaningless provisions from days gone by and making sure our laws are relevant to the modern world. Laws to be repealed under the Statute Law (Repeals) Bill include: An Act of 1856 passed to help imprisoned debtors secure their early release from prison • A 1710 Act to raise coal duty to pay for 50 new churches in London • 38 obsolete Acts relating to the various railway companies operating in British India and the wider East Indies • 40 Acts relating to the City of Dublin and passed by the UK Parliament before Ireland was partitioned in 1921 • A 1696 Act to fund the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral after the Great Fire of 1666 • An 1800 Act to hold a lottery to win the £30,000 Pigot Diamond • 57 obsolete Acts to raise money for the parish poor, including a 1697 Act to run a workhouse in Exeter • 295 obsolete railway Acts. Many of the railways projects outlined in these Acts collapsed in the banking crisis of 1866. • 16 Acts passed between 1798 and 1828 to impose duty on every pint of ale, beer or porter brewed or sold in parts of Scotland • A 1696 turnpike Act to repair the roads between Reigate and Crawley