Where a statutory instrument or a disposition limits a citizen's rights or imposes an obligation, how is the period of that restriction counted, and what changes where counting that way is unfavourable to the citizen?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In practice material of this kind, we read the statutory instrument or the disposition itself to see how it expresses the period during which the restriction or obligation lasts, and the paper showing when it took effect or was served, since the provision counts the first day of the period but does not itself say when the period begins.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading applies the two criteria only to the period during which a restriction of rights or an obligation lasts, as set by a statutory instrument or a disposition: where that period is set in days, weeks, months or years, the first day is counted in; and where the last day of the period falls on a Saturday or a public holiday, the period still expires on that day.
Another reading turns on the proviso and on paragraph one: where following those criteria is unfavourable to the citizen, they do not apply, and the provision does not say what counting governs in their place; and where this Act or another statutory instrument contains a special rule on counting periods in administrative matters, the Civil Code is applied only as the default, not as the rule that prevails over that special rule.
Your judgment
Where the criteria do not apply because following them is unfavourable, what in the file would show which counting rule governs the end of the period instead?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change the proviso, the kinds of period covered by the first-day rule, or the criteria themselves, or if a court decision explains when following the criteria counts as unfavourable to the citizen.