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Law: Legislation

Understanding Legislation

Parliament

Act

This represents the name of the Act and the year it gained royal assent (i.e. when it has passed all the stages and is formally agreed by the Monarch as an Act of Parliament).  

Act

c 29 refers to the chapter number.  This means this particular Act was the 29th passed in 1998 so if it were published physically in a book the Data Protection Act would appear as the 29th chapter of the 1998 volume.  Therefore, you only need the year and chapter number to identify an Act.

Key Online Sources of Legislation

Lexis+

Access: Via Athens

For legislation: contains fully consolidated full text of Acts since 1266 and Statutory instruments since 1786.  Includes annotations for all legislation taken from Halsbury's Statutes.  Links from legislation to case law, journals and commentary including Halsbury’s Laws.  The default view is always current legislation, however a timeline feature enables the end user to view previous versions of sections of legislation.   

Westlaw

Access: Via Athens

For legislation: contains the fully consolidated full text of Acts since 1267 and selected Statutory Instruments since 1948.  Legislation Compare  allows the user to easily view historic and prospective versions of legislation and compare them.  Annotations are available for most recent legislation and more are being added for earlier legislation on an on-going basis.  Provision information provides analysis and links to case law, commentary and journals. 

Access: Via Athens

Legislation is provided as originally published with associated statutory status tables.  Links to the text of legislation is via Westlaw for customers who subscribe to both.  To view fully amended legislation use either LexisLibrary or Westlaw

Now available via Westlaw.

Useful Links

These useful links relate primarily to UK legislation.  For information about legislation and materials from the EU and other jurisdictions please go to the EU & International Materials page.

The Law Commission

As well as providing information on current areas of research, the site provides summaries of the full text of recent Law Commission Publications: Consultation Papers and Reports etc.

Government Documents

The Government website for official documents.  View material by date or relevance.  Options to search or filter by topic/sub-topics, publication types such as Command or Act papers, or by organisation.  Apply date parameters if required.

UK Parliament

On the UK Parliament website scroll down for Quick Links to the House of Commons, House of Lords, Hansard, Bills and Committees. Follow the latest business and news from both Houses or watch Parliament TV.

Bills & Legislation

Track bills through Parliament, view their ‘Passage of a Bill’ guide and other useful information about Bills and Acts.

House of Commons

Provides information about the House of Commons and Members of Parliament. Also provides access to Order Papers, House of Commons debates, Public Bills before Parliament, reports from Select Committees, Standing Committee Debates, the Weekly Information Bulletin and the Sessional Information Digest. The site also has live video of Parliamentary debates during sessions. 

House of Lords

Provides information about the House of Lords and its membership. Also provides access to Order Papers, House of Lords debates, and further parliamentary information. 

Northern Ireland Assembly

Provides information on the Northern Ireland Assembly's activities. Northern Ireland legislation is available via the Legislation.gov.uk site. 

Scottish Parliament

Provides information on the Scottish Parliament's activities including legislative, consultative and other significant documents. Scottish legislation is available via the Legislation.gov.uk site. 

National Assembly for Wales

Provides information on the Assembly's activities. Welsh legislation is available via the Legislation.gov.uk site.

British & Irish Legal Information Institute

Provides British and Irish case law and legislation, European Union case law, Law Commission reports, and other law-related British and Irish materials

Legislation.gov.uk 

Please note this website is open access and will not have the ‘added value’ features provided by Online Resources such as LexisLibrary and Westlaw.  You should always use these subscription online services provided by BPP ahead of any free online resources if you need to view legislation beyond that provided to you in any course books.

  • Legislation.gov.uk carries most (but not all) types of legislation and their accompanying explanatory documents.  All legislation from 1988 is available (with a few minor exceptions). Check the status of any Act to see if it is provided in its original version, or if it has been revised.  Note any 'changes to legislation' notifications.
  • Most pre-1988 primary legislation is available but may only be the original published (as enacted) version with no revision version.  Please see their website for full details of availability, exclusions etc.
  • Secondary legislation is in the process of being added but is not complete.  New legislation is usually published within 24 hours of its publication in printed form.
  • Materials are available for the United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Useful Resources

We subscribe to online resources to access legislation. These have added value including annotations, references to Hansard, links to commentary and case law.   For help on searching online use the guides below.

Video Guide

Written Guides