Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999

Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision for the enforcement of contractual terms by third parties.
Citation	1999 c. 31
Introduced by	Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg[1]
Territorial extent	England and Wales and Northern Ireland
Dates
Royal assent	11 November 1999
Commencement	11 November 1999
Status: Current legislation
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 (c. 31) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that significantly reformed the common law doctrine of privity and "thereby [removed] one of the most universally disliked and criticised blots on the legal landscape".^[2] The second rule of the doctrine of privity, that a third party could not enforce a contract for which he had not provided consideration, had been widely criticised by lawyers, academics and members of the judiciary. Proposals for reform via an act of Parliament were first made in 1937 by the Law Revision Committee in their Sixth Interim Report. No further action was taken by the government until the 1990s, when the Law Commission proposed a new draft bill in 1991, and presented their final report in 1996. The bill was introduced to the House of Lords in December 1998, and moved to the House of Commons on 14 June 1999. It received royal assent on 11 November 1999, coming into force immediately as the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.