The Repeal of Obsolete Statutes Act 1856 (19 & 20 Vict. c. 64), also known as the Statute Law Revision Act 1856, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repealed for the United Kingdom enactments from 1285 to 1777 which had ceased to be in force or had become unnecessary.
Halsbury's Laws labelled this act as the first act for statute law revision (in the sense of repealing enactments which are obsolete, spent, unnecessary or superseded, or which no longer serve a useful purpose). Courtenay Ilbert described this act as the first Statute Law Revision Act.
In the United Kingdom, acts of Parliament remain in force until expressly repealed. Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the late 18th-century, raised questions about the system and structure of the common law and the poor drafting and disorder of the existing statute book.
In 1806, the Commission on Public Records passed a resolution requesting the production of a report on the best mode of reducing the volume of the statute book. From 1810 to 1825, The Statutes of the Realm was published, providing for the first time the authoritative collection of acts. In 1816, both Houses of Parliament, passed resolutions that an eminent lawyer with 20 clerks be commissioned to make a digest of the statutes, which was declared "very expedient to be done." However, this was never done.
At the start of the parliamentary session in 1853, Lord Cranworth announced his intention to the improvement of the statute law and in March 1853, appointed the Board for the Revision of the Statute Law to repeal expired statutes and continue consolidation, with a wider remit that included civil law. The Board issued three reports dated 18 August 1853, 31 January 1854 and 2 June 1854, recommending the creation of a permanent body for statute law reform.
In 1854, Lord Cranworth appointed the Royal Commission for Consolidating the Statute Law to consolidate existing statutes and enactments of English law. The Commission made four reports.
An alternative approach, focusing on expunging obsolete laws from the statute book, followed by consolidation, was proposed by Peter Locke King MP, who was heavily critical of the expenditure of the Commission and the lack of results.
The whole act was repealed by section 1 of, and the schedule to, the Statute Law Revision Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 66), which came into force on 11 August 1875.
Section 1 of the act repealed 120 obsolete acts that had been deemed unnecessary by the Statute Law Commission. In addition to the explicitly listed acts, any act "confirming, continuing, or perpetuating the same" were also repealed.