LibGuides: Law: How to trace U.K. legislation

What is legislation

The U.K. Parliament creates law in the form of legislation.

In the U.K. there are two main types of legislation:

Primary legislation
Acts of parliament (Statutes). An Act starts as a Bill (a proposal for a new law) which has to be debated and approved by both Houses of Parliament and then receive the Royal Assent to become an Act of Parliament. An Act of Parliament is a law, enforced in all areas of the U.K. where it is applicable.
Secondary Legislation
Also known as delegated legislation which are the rules and orders made under powers provided under an Act of Parliament i.e. a change in law can be made without a completely new Act of Parliament as long the original Act has provisions that allow for this. Statutory Instruments (SIs) form the majority of this legislation.

Understanding legislation

Searching for U.K. Legislation

Online

Use the Legislation search in LexisLibrary and/or Westlaw UK to find current, updated versions of U.K. Acts and Statutory Instruments. They also provide annotations and extra information.

It is important to know if you need to look for the amended (the law as it currently stands) or unamended version of an Act. In LexisLibrary you have the option to search the current version or an historical version.

Search by the title of the Act with the year e.g. "The Childcare Act 2006".

Lexis Plus (formerly LexisLibrary) This link opens in a new window
Lexis Plus (Lexis+) is a legal database containing UK, EU and international case law, legislation, legal journals, commentary texts, current awareness, and news. The database provides access to full text online legal and news information services and contains a range of practitioner texts including Butterworths Company Law Handbook and Butterworths Family Law Service as well as All England Law Reports, Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents, and Halsbury's Laws. A full-text collection of several UK broadsheet, tabloid and local newspapers is also included.
Accessibility Statement (This link opens in a new window)
Can I access this resource?
To access Lexis Library you must be either:
- A UK-based Teesside University undergraduate or postgraduate
- A UK-based member of Teesside University Faculty or Library staff
- A TUCP student
If you are not a member of any of these groups then unfortunately our licence does not allow access to the resource

Use of licenced material
All electronic databases are covered by licences, and failure to adhere to the terms of the licences could result in the University losing access to these resources.
The licence for Lexis Nexis includes the following terms:
- The material available on Lexis Library is only for educational purposes directly linked to academic coursework
- You may only print one single hard copy of up to ten documents
- You may only download one single copy of up to ten documents
A copy of the full terms of the Lexis Library licence can be found below.
List of electronic resource licences (I to L)
Westlaw UK This link opens in a new window
This is a database which searches for cases, legislation and journals both for the UK and EU. Searches can be carried out for journal articles using the Legal Journals Index or UK Journals which gives some full text articles.

Accessibility Statement (This link opens in a new window)
Can I access this resource?
To access Westlaw UK you must be either:
- A UK-based Teesside University undergraduate or postgraduate
- A UK-based member of Teesside University staff
- A TUCP student
If you are not a member of any of these groups then unfortunately our licence does not allow access to the resource

Use of licenced material
All electronic databases are covered by licences, and failure to adhere to the terms of the licences could result in the University losing access to these resources.
All databases are provided for educational use only.
A copy of the full terms of the Westlaw UK licence can be found below.
List of electronic resource licences (U to Z)

Bills before Parliament
Legislation.gov.uk
This is a free official resource of amended legislation. It has all legislation since 1988 and most pre-1988 legislation.
Statutory Instruments on Legislation.gov.uk
BIALLI
Has amended legislation (Acts) taken from legislation.gov.uk. Secondary legislation is unamended

Citing UK Legislation (OSCOLA)

Refer to OSCOLA - Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities

Cite an Act by its short-title and year (do not use ‘popular’ titles for an Act).

e.g. paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section 15 of the Human Rights Act 1998 is expressed as:

Human Rights Act 1998, s 15(1)(b)

Cite a Bill by its title, the House in which it originated, the Parliamentary session in brackets and the running number assigned to it.

e.g. title | HC Bill |(session) | [number] Consolidated Fund HC Bill (2008-09) [5]
OR
title | HL Bill |(session) |number (Note no brackets for the running number) Academies HL Bill (2010-11) 1

Statutory Instruments (orders, regulations or rules) are numbered consecutively throughout the year. The year combines with the serial number to provide an SI number that follows the abbreviation 'SI'.

e.g name, year ('comma') SI number e.g. Penalties for Disorderly Behaviour (Amendment of Minimum Age) Order 2004, SI 2004/3166