The Times, October 13, 2017
‘Effectively’ and ‘in effect’ do not mean the same thing. ‘Effectively’ means the intended outcome was achieved, as in ‘Putting down poison effectively cleared the island of rats’, while ‘in effect’ means that something happened even though it might not have been intended, as in ‘Putting down poison in effect turned the island into a wildlife desert’. Most of the time ‘effectively’, if correctly used, would be redundant (as in my example above), while ‘in effect’ is nearly always the one that is required, as here. It should say either ‘ . . . are in effect to be given an amnesty’ or ‘ . . . are to be given an amnesty in effect’.