The Military Lands Act 1892 section 14 (1) empowers the Secretary of State for Defence to make and revoke byelaws. Where, however, land has since been sold a byelaw cannot subsequently be revoked. This is because section 14 (1) only applies to land belonging to the Secretary of State which is for the time being appropriated for a military purpose and in such circumstances this is no longer the case. Therefore in these circumstances there is no statutory power enabling Ministry of Defence (MOD) to make a byelaw revoking a previous one. This means that byelaws on sites no longer appropriated for military purposes remain as live statutory instruments, but become unenforceable on the area of land not still in MOD ownership.
Over the years the MOD has sold or transferred the freehold or relinquished the leasehold at a significant number of sites that were once the subject of byelaws. In order to give guidance to the public as to which byelaws are recognised as being unenforceable these have been collated on to the "lapsed list". This list may also be helpful in showing for environmental and historical research those areas of the country once occupied by MOD.
Unfortunately in some cases the Department no longer holds copies of the relevant byelaws listed below and consequently in these cases no active hyperlink is in place. It is possible, however, that copies may still be held in local county record offices, but no check has been made by MOD.