There are three separate legal systems operating in the United Kingdom for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. England and Wales, and Northern Ireland operate a common law system; Scotland operates Scots law system, which is a mixed instead of pure law system, sharing varies similarities to Roman-Dutch law.
This page is to provide useful resources related to the legislation of the United Kingdom, divided into three categories
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Legislation.gov.uk (Enacted and revised UK legislation) (click to visit)
This is the official website of UK legislation maintained by the National Archives on behalf of the HM (His Majesty’s) government. It offers comprehensive resources on legislations and relevant materials of the UK covering Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Gazette (click to visit)
The Gazette is formally the combination of three publications: The London Gazette, The Belfast Gazette and The Edinburgh Gazette. The Gazettes are official journals of record.
As a publication, The Gazette consists largely of statutory notices. This means that there is some legal requirement for the notice placer to advertise an event or proposal in The Gazette.
There are over 450 different types of notice that are advertised in The Gazette, including:
The Gazette website provides information on these different types of notice and the legislation that governs their publication here.
The legal power to print and publish The Gazette is a prerogative power conferred on the King’s Printer by letters patent. Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order, in this case issued by the monarch. The King's Printer and the Controller of HMSO have historically been viewed as one and the same person, and it can be inferred that the functions of the King’s Printer are to be carried out by HMSO operating from within The National Archives, under the direction of the Controller and Keeper (who is the chief executive of The National Archives). The National Archives (HMSO) manages the publication of all three of the individual Gazette titles (London, Belfast and Edinburgh) for the King’s Printer, under a concessionary contract.
Notices printed in The Gazette are afforded legal standing, and The Gazette itself is afforded special protection by the Documentary Evidence Act 1882
UK Parliamentary Bills (click to visit)
This website is maintained by the UK Parliament which archived bills (e.g. public bills , private member’s bills, private bills and hybrid bills) from 1988-current originated by the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Hansard Online (click to visit)
Hansard is useful materials in understanding the debates and decisions made by Members. In the UK, Hansard materials are available for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Hansard Online generally provides records from 28 April 2017 to the present. For historical records of the two Houses, you may refer to the below links for direct access:
Scottish Parliament (Bills and Laws) (click to visit)
This website is maintained by The Scottish Parliament which archived bills in every stages, including Government Bills, Member’s Bills, Committee Bills, Private Bills and Hybrid Bills that have been examined by the Scottish Parliament up to last 12 months.
Northern Ireland Assembly (click to visit)
This website is maintained by The Northern Ireland Assembly and has archived Bills from the 1st Mandate (from 1999 to present) to 5th Mandate (from 2017 to present).
As a statutory independent body, the Law Commission aims to ensure the current law is fair by conducting “examination of different branches of the law”. From their site, you may find information on a law reform project, statue law repeals, consolidation and more.
This website is maintained by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the UK Government. Provides an official record of the UK's treaty obligations under international law and is sourced by Treaty Section of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. UKTO gives access to information on over 14,000 treaties to which the UK is or has been a party with links to texts of command papers published in the UK Treaty Series from 1892 to current.
To search for UK Legislation, please use the Legislation dropdown menu as shown below:
L+HK provides consolidated old and current primary and secondary legislation including acts, statutory instruments and etc, for UK, Scotland and Wales.
To search for legislation, please use the search bar on the homepage as demonstrated below. Selecting both the jurisdiction as United Kingdom and the content type as UK Legislation via their respective dropdown menus:
Provided by Thomson Reuters, this database provides consolidated primary and secondary legislative coverage, including acts, bills, statutory instruments and etc., for UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It offers access to historic and prospective versions of all primary and secondary legislation.
You may select Content Type (top bar menu) > Legislation (left navigation menu) > United Kingdom Legislation > pick from the list of options.
Other than browsing with Content Type, you may start with Jurisdiction first and followed by selecting the content type.
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
The resource provides an online archive of House of Commons sessional papers (from 1715), record of proceedings, the debates (Hansard), the House of Commons journal and Papers of the House of Lords, covering the below periods:
Halsbury’s Statutes of England and Wales
This title provides exclusive information on the statute law of England and Wales. To understand how to use it, you may refer to the Guide on How to Use Halsbury’s Statutes provided by LexisNexis for more details.
Halsbury’s Annotations
Officially named as Halsbury’s Statutes Annotations derived and generated all notes presented in volumes of Halsbury’s Statutes of England and Wales. To know more about this publication, check out LexisWeb.co.uk for details.
Halsbury’s Statues Citator
Similar function as case citator, this publication offers a quick and handy access to the current status of all statutes. To know more about this publication, check out LexisWeb.co.uk for details.
Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments
This title provides updated and fruitful information on every statutory instrument in force in England and Wales
Halsbury’s SI CItator
This title lists full title of the statutory instruments presented in Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments in alphabetical order, with consolidated information and latest status. To know more about this publication, check out LexisWeb.co.uk for details.
Published by the Butterworths, the Halsbury’s Laws of England is an authoritative and comprehensive encyclopaedia that covers all English law. To understand how to use it, you may refer to the Guide on How to Use Halsbury's Law of England provided by LexisNexis for more details.
British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) (click to visit)
Supporting the free access of legal information, BAILII offers an extensive collection of materials. You may either conduct the search by selecting the Legislation Search with keywords, or click on the A-Z legislation title index for browsing individual legislation.
