The announcement is to be made on Tuesday at a ceremony at which the minority executive is to review legislation passed in 2017, during which it oversaw the approval of less legislation in its second year than any of its predecessors.

That, according to the secretary of state at the cabinet office, is a good thing.

Tiago Antunes told Lusa that the government not only has the objective of producing fewer legislative acts, "but also to clean the legal order and legislative acts that no longer make sense, that are out of date or have expired”, but which have never been expressly revoked.

"Very shortly we shall approve the revocation of 2,300 statutes from the years from 1975 to 1980 that are already overtaken by events [and] no longer make sense, but which have never been expressly eliminated from the legal order,” Antunes said, adding that the move would mean that there would be “no doubts” about their having ceased to be effective.

Asked when the measure would be implemented, Antunes said that the government would be approving the necessary legislation “over the next month”.

On 2017, the secretary of state stressed that the government has been focussing its attention on measures aimed at “improving the quality of legislation”.

According to official figures on 2016, "for the first time in more than 40 years of democracy, a Constitutional Government published fewer than a hundred statutes, with just 98 statutes published,” he stressed, noting that this had been a goal announced when the executive took office.

That contrasts with the 269 statutes approved in 2015, under its right-of-centre predecessor.

Meanwhile, nine bills were approved in 2016, against 195 approved in 2015.