Commentary on Sections Part 10: Final Provisions Section 105: Minor and consequential amendments etc.
236.This introduces Schedules 11 (minor and consequential amendments) and (12 (repeals and revocations).
237.Paragraph 97 of Schedule 11 introduces a new section 71(2) into the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to clarify the meaning of “plants” in that Act. The drafting of the 1981 Act, which includes certain fungi species in Schedule 8 to that Act (which is about protected plants), assumes that fungi are plants. Similarly, the drafting of the 1981 Act, which includes algae in Part 2 of Schedule 9 to that Act (plants to which section 14 applies), also assumes that algae are plants. But from the standard scientific point of view fungi and algae are not regarded as plants. Paragraph 97 is intended to make clear that for the purposes of the 1981 Act fungi and algae species are regarded as “plants”.