We only hold a partial dataset of UK legislation texts and metadata, although we are acquiring more data. We also only hold a partial dataset of EU legislation texts and metadata, to which no further items will be added following the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (although we will continue to apply EU Exit amendments to the texts currently present). This page explains what data we do and do not hold.
We hold the text of almost all UK primary and secondary legislation published since 1988, plus the text of some UK legislation published before that date.
Of the legislation we hold published since 1988, we hold most of it in a machine-readable format called XML. All legislation held in XML format is available as HTML web pages and dynamically generated PDF files, and is also available for full-text search. We also hold revised XML versions of most pre-1988 UK Public General Acts in force as of 1st February 1991, as these were rekeyed from the Statutes in Force volumes.
Most UK primary legislation we hold that was enacted before 1988 is currently only available as PDF. Most UK secondary legislation we hold that was made before 1987 is currently only available as XML, as it was derived from XML provided by Westlaw.
We do not hold text of any of the following types of legislation, although we do hold metadata for them:
We do hold some legislation originating from the EU, to fulfil our obligations under Schedule 5 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The EU origin legislation we hold is:
The EU Exit Web Archive holds many other EU documents not published on legislation.gov.uk.
We normally only record amendments from amending documents enacted or made in 1994 onwards. There are some notable exceptions:
There are some types of legislation for which we do not record all changes (either we do not record changes made by them, changes made to them, or neither).
| Legislation type | Which documents do we have? | Are we revising (updating) these items? | Do we record amendments made by these items? | Do we record amendments made to these items? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Public General Acts (1801–) | All UK Public General Acts from 1988 onwards Some UK Public General Acts from before 1988—mostly those still in force as of 1st February 1991 (the base date) |
Yes, although not older UK Public General Acts only available as King’s Printer PDF | Yes, but normally only for UK Public General Acts enacted in 1994 onwards | Yes |
| UK Local Acts (1801–) | All UK Local Acts from 1991 onwards Some UK Public General Acts from before 1991—mostly only available as King’s Printer PDF |
Yes, although not older UK Local Acts only available as King’s Printer PDF | Yes, but only for UK Local Acts enacted in 1994 onwards | Yes |
| Measures and Acts of the National Assembly for Wales (2008–2020), Acts of Senedd Cymru (2020–) | All Welsh primary legislation | Yes, in English and Welsh | Yes | Yes |
| Acts of the Scottish Parliament (1999–) | All Acts of the Scottish Parliament | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly (2000–) | All Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Northern Ireland Orders in Council (1972–) | All Northern Ireland Orders in Council from 1987 onwards Some Northern Ireland Orders in Council from before 1987—mostly those still in force as of 1st January 2006 (the NI base date) |
Yes, although not older Northern Ireland Orders in Council only available as King’s Printer PDF | Yes, but normally only for Northern Ireland Orders in Council made in 1994 onwards | Yes |
| UK Church Measures (1920–) | All UK Church Measures from 1988 onwards, as XML and King’s Printer PDFs Some UK Church Measures from before 1988 |
Yes | Yes, but only for UK Church Measures enacted in 1994 onwards | Yes |
| Legislation type | Which documents do we have? | Are we revising (updating) these items? | Do we record amendments made by these items? | Do we record amendments made to these items? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Statutory Instruments (1948–) | All UK Statutory Instruments since 1987, except for Local Statutory Instruments and non-prints (all except Local and non-prints available as XML, most available as King’s Printer PDF) All Local and non-print UK Statutory Instruments since 2011 (only available as King’s Printer PDFs) Most UK Statutory Instruments made before 1987 (most only available as XML) |
Yes, but only where available as XML | Yes, but normally only for UK Statutory Instruments made in 1994 onwards, plus selected UK Statutory Instruments made between 1972 and 1993 | Yes |
| Welsh Statutory Instruments (1999–) | All Welsh Statutory Instruments, except for Local Statutory Instruments and non-prints (all except Local and non-prints available as XML, most available as King’s Printer PDF) All Local and non-print Welsh Statutory Instruments since 2011 (only available as King’s Printer PDFs) |
Yes, in English and Welsh, but only where available as XML | Yes | Yes |
| Scottish Statutory Instruments (1999–) | All Scottish Statutory Instruments, except for Local Statutory Instruments and non-prints (all except Local and non-prints available as XML, most available as King’s Printer PDF) All Local and non-print Scottish Statutory Instruments since 2007 (only available as King’s Printer PDFs) |
Yes, but only where available as XML | Yes | Yes |
| Northern Ireland Statutory Rules (1974–) | All Northern Ireland Statutory Rules since 1996, except for Local Statutory Instruments and non-prints (all except Local and non-prints available as XML, most available as King’s Printer PDF) All Local and non-print Northern Ireland Statutory Rules since 2011 (only available as King’s Printer PDFs) |
Yes, but only where available as XML | Yes, but only for Northern Ireland Statutory Rules made from 1994 onwards | Yes |
| UK Ministerial Directions (2023–) | All UK Ministerial Directions from 2023 onwards (only available as King’s Printer PDFs) | No | Yes | Yes |
| UK Ministerial Orders (1953–) | All UK Ministerial Orders from 2013 onwards (only available as King’s Printer PDFs) Select UK Ministerial Orders from 1972 to 2012 (only available as King’s Printer PDFs) |
No | No | No |
| Legislation type | Which documents do we have? | Are we revising (updating) these items? | Do we record amendments made by these items? | Do we record amendments made to these items? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (1921–1972) | Some Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1921 onwards | Yes | No | Yes |
| Measures of the Northern Ireland Assembly (1974) | Some Measures of the Northern Ireland Assembly (available as revised XML only) | Yes | No | No |
| UK Private and Personal Acts (1801–1987) | All UK Private and Personal Acts from 1946 onwards Some UK Private and Personal Acts from before 1946 (All only available as King’s Printer PDF) |
No | No | No |
| Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain (1707–1800) | Some Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 onwards—available either as XML or as scanned PDF, depending on whether the Act was present in Statutes in Force | Yes, but only where available as XML | No | Yes |
| Local Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain (1797–1800) | All Local Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain enacted from 1797 to 1799 (only available as King’s Printer PDF) Some Local Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain enacted in 1800 (only available as King’s Printer PDF) |
No | No | No |
| Acts of the English Parliament (1235–1706) | Some Acts of the English Parliament from 1267 onwards—available either as XML or as scanned PDF, depending on whether the Act was present in Statutes in Force | Yes, but only where available as XML | No | Yes |
| Acts of the Old Scottish Parliament (1424–1707) | Some Acts of the Old Scottish Parliament from 1424, only available as revised XML (rekeyed from Statutes in Force) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Acts of the Old Irish Parliament (1495–1800) | Some Acts of the Old Irish Parliament from 1495, only available as revised XML (rekeyed from Statutes in Force | Yes | No | Yes |
| Legislation type | Which documents do we have? | Are we revising (updating) these items? | Do we record amendments made by these items? | Do we record amendments made to these items? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Statutory Rules and Orders (1894–1947) | Some UK Statutory Orders from 1894 onwards, as King’s Printer PDFs only (The UK SR&O series only officially began in 1894, but currently we publish some older instruments in that category as well) |
No | No | Yes |
| Northern Ireland Statutory Rules and Orders (1922–1973) | Some Northern Ireland Statutory Rules and Orders from 1922 onwards, as King’s Printer PDFs only | No | No | Yes |
| UK Church Instruments (1991–2016) | All UK Church Instruments, as XML only (no King’s Printer PDF versions) | No | Yes, but only for UK Church Instruments created in 1994 onwards | No |
| Legislation type | Which documents do we have? | Are we updating these items? | Do we record amendments made by these items? | Do we record amendments made to these items? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Regulations, Decisions and Directives in sector 3, plus their consolidated versions and any corrigenda | Almost all EU documents adopted from 2004 onwards are available as XML and original PDFs. Most EU documents adopted before 2004 are only available as original PDF, except for a small number that have consolidated versions in XML | We are applying domestic “EU Exit” amendments to these documents only—as of the end of the implementation period no further EU amendments apply | Yes, all known amendments from the EU origin documents we hold have been recorded | Yes, but only for domestic “EU Exit” amendments and any EU amendments made before the end of the implementation period |
Our database is both large and complex, with more than 300,000 items of legislation from data collections deriving from different sources. As a result, the content held within the database has some limitations.
The text of the Statute Law Database, from which much of our revised primary legislation originates, was derived from two earlier official hardcopy editions of revised primary legislation, Statutes in Force (SIF) and The Northern Ireland Statutes Revised (NISR). The final text of SIF was revised to 1st February 1991, and that of NISR to 1st January 2006. These dates form the basedates for SLD legislation, which means the dates from which revision work has been taken forward.
As a result, we do not always have XML for UK primary legislation that was not at least partially in force on or after the basedate of 1st February 1991. For Northern Ireland, we do not always have XML for primary legislation that was not at least partially in force on or after the basedate of 1st January 2006.
We have acquired secondary legislation from various sources, many of which are not complete. Consequently, we do not have complete sets of the following secondary legislation:
Not all legislation on the website is up to date. Typically, over 95% of all primary legislation on the website is up to date, and over 85% of the top 5,000 most viewed documents (including secondary legislation) are up to date. These figures fluctuate as Parliament and ministers regularly enact new amendments to legislation.
Until 7th March 2019, the initial revised version of all legislation either came from the original Statutes In Force/Northern Ireland Statutes Revised datasets or was produced using the legacy Statute Law Database editorial system. As a result, no version history is available prior to the base date of 1st February 1991 (or 1st January 2006 for Northern Ireland legislation) for legislation initially revised before 7th March 2019.
If you view a revised version that is not up to date, you will see a red “Changes to Legislation” banner that will explain which amendments are yet to be applied. You can also find unapplied amendments on the changes to legislation search page and in the <ukm:UnappliedEffects> element in the XML representation of a revised item or section of legislation.
Not all documents are available in all formats. For instance, some documents are only available in PDF format, or do not have a printed PDF format available. For more information on the formats available on the website and how to access them, see the formats section.
Images within documents (including diagrams, forms and mathematical formulae) do not currently have descriptive ALT text.
Completeness and accuracy of the data of documents from before the base date cannot be guaranteed, as documents may have been rekeyed or OCRed and may therefore contain errors.
New legislation is published on legislation.gov.uk at the same time as it is printed, which happens as quickly as possible once we are authorised to publish it. This generally occurs within 48 hours of the legislation being enacted, made or laid. Newly published legislation appears on the New Legislation page and feeds on legislation.gov.uk.
Any document which is especially complex in terms of its size or its typography may take longer to prepare. Sometimes, we publish PDFs for some items of new legislation before XML is available, and then upload the XML later.
We sometimes alter legislation data after we first publish it. This can occur in a few scenarios: a formal correction of the legislation (e.g. a correction slip); the correction of data versions to better represent the official PDF version; or a reprint/reissue of the relevant legislation item.
It is possible to subscribe to the legislation feeds to get details of the latest legislation and any updates to content as soon as they are published, without having to check the new legislation page each day.
For revised legislation, information about effects are extracted and added to the Changes to Legislation page (and underlying feeds) as quickly as we can, although it can take up to six weeks if the document is large or if there is a high volume of new legislation.
If you are interested in knowing when a document has last changed, it is possible to check this information by opening the XML format of the document and looking at the value of the <dc:modified> element. To know how to access the XML format of a document, as well as other formats, see the formats section of this documentation.
Usually, documents (either enacted or revised) are not removed from legislation.gov.uk except in rare cases with agreement of the originating department where the item was not valid law, e.g. if it was published because of administrative error or if a court judgment has ruled that it was invalid. If data are missing from legislation.gov.uk, then this is usually because we do not yet hold it.