This document establishes the formal legal date for the transition of administrative authority regarding the territory of Anguilla. The order was issued by the British government under the authority of the Anguilla Act 1980 to provide a definitive timeline for the constitutional separation of Anguilla from the associated state of Saint Christopher, Nevis and Anguilla. It serves as a primary legislative instrument to enact the legal framework required for the territory's transition to a separate British dependent territory.

Legal scholars and historians utilize this order as a foundational primary source for documenting the constitutional history of Anguilla. The text is highly technical and serves strictly as a record of legislative action rather than an interpretive analysis.