What it does
This Order updates statutory cross‑references by substituting named office‑holders and administrative entities in existing Acts and instruments. Mechanically, it operates as a textual substitution exercise: where a provision (defined in clause 2) in an Act or instrument names a Minister, Department or Secretary identified in the Schedules, that provision "has effect" from the date shown in the heading to the relevant Part of a Schedule as if the older name were replaced by the substitute name specified in the same item (clauses 3-5). Clause 1 gives the Order its formal title. Clause 2 defines the scope of the word provision for the Order’s purposes. Clause 3 deals with substituted references to Ministers, clause 4 with Departments, and clause 5 with Secretaries.
The Schedules contain the operative mapping tables. Schedule 1 maps existing Ministerial references to substitute Ministerial references. Schedule 2 does the same for Departments and Schedule 3 for Secretaries. Each Schedule is subdivided into dated Parts (for example, "Part 1,Substitutions made on 6 August 1997", "Part 2,Substitutions made on 29 October 1997", etc.). The effect, per clauses 3-5, runs "on and from the date mentioned in the heading to that Part" so the temporal operation is explicit rather than open‑ended. Some items affect "all provisions"; others identify particular Acts, sections, regulations, instruments or schedules (for example, Schedule 1, Part 3 item 1 affects "sections 3 and 3A of the Excise Tariff Act 1921 and section 165A of the Excise Act 1901 and regulation 11 of the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations" by substituting particular Ministerial references).
The Order is framed as an interpretive vehicle: it does not create new powers or duties on its face, it replaces one referent with another inside the text of affected provisions. The Order also includes a Note following clause 5 which records that a Schedule entry may have been previously affected by earlier substituted references under other orders made under sections 19B or 19BA of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, and may be affected after commencement by orders under section 19BB or by other substituted references (the Note is an express acknowledgement of cumulative or later orders). This Order therefore functions as a piece of statutory housekeeping: it aligns statutory language to changed ministerial/departmental titles and administrative arrangements by substituting references across a wide range of statutory provisions and delegated instruments (clauses 3-5; Schedules 1-3).