UK Parliament / Open data

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Perhaps I can help with this question. Since the 1880s, it has been a matter of interpretation of statutes, and I was certainly taught at law school that the male embraces the female. It has therefore always been said that you used the term “he”, which meant, in the appropriate context, “he or she”. The result is that statutes and, presumably, amendments do not need to use the words “he or she” each time. My noble friend will find when he takes advice on this later that it is a well established principle of statutory interpretation, if I may repeat it, that the male embraces the female.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
741 c139GC 
Session
2012-13
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
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