Oxford LibGuides: Parliamentary Papers, Proceedings and Departmental Papers : UK: Legislation

Online sources of legislation

Please see below a list of the more common online sources of UK Legislation. It is important to know if you are looking for amended or unamended legislation.There are a number of subscription databases that have amended legislation and they also include other information (such as annotations) which may be useful.

Westlaw Edge UK
Alternative name: West Law UK ; Westlaw UK

Westlaw is a large database of UK, US and international legal materials including cases, legislation and journal articles.
Coverage:
•UK statutes, statutory instruments and law reports
•England and Wales law reports
•US federal and state legislation and law reports
•Australian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Canadian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Hong Kong SAR law reports and laws
•European Union legislation and law reports
•UK and US law journals and texts
•Common Law Library and over 200 books published by Sweet & Maxwell (Thomson Reuters)
Because of licencing restrictions this database is not available to "Walk-in" users of the library.
Lexis+ UK
As well as acts and SIs, includes Halsbury's services
Alternative names:Lexis ; LexisLibrary ; Lexis Library ; Lexis International

Lexis+ includes extensive primary and secondary legal materials from the UK, EU, USA and many other jurisdictions. It is the only online source for the full text of the All England Law Reports and Halsbury’s Laws. International content can be accessed by following the “International” link on the home page. UK legal news and newspapers are also included
vLex Justis
Library of PGAs as originally enacted. Earliest based on Ruffhead’s edition of Statutes at Large up to 1866. Justis continues chronological sequence with HMSO editions. Also has local legislation (as promulgated) from 1797 to date. Growing collection of Private/Personal acts from c1830 on
vLex Justis offers access to a range of law reports, transcripts and legislation from the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Caribbean, and the EU. For UK case research it has extensive information relating to where cases have been cited, etc including a precedent map.

In addition it includes the full text of the following: Aspinall's Maritime Law Cases, English Reports, State Trials, CCH Tax Cases, Immigration Appeal Reports, Inquest Law Reports, Mental Health Reports, Session Cases Archive, Irish Reports & Digest, Jersey Law Reports, Bermuda Law Reports, Cayman Islands Law Reports, The Singapore Law Reports, and the International Law Reports. Also included in the service is Justis Human Rights.

To access personalisation features please set up an individual profile on the platform using a unique id and password.

Please note that apart from the titles listed above, vLex Justis includes some abstracted materials for which you will need to refer to other online services or hard copy to obtain the full text.

vLex Justis includes content formerly available via JustisOne.

Legislation.gov.uk
Open access. Official site Use the drop down menu TYPE to limit search to public general acts or statutory instruments or browse by year etc. Excellent for original, historic version (text of act as originally promulgated) and Explanatory Notes for more recent legislation. Pay attention to the current status which is given for each act. More has further details of coverage
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All primary legislation from 1988
All secondary legislation from 1987, including UK Statutory Instruments, Scottish Statutory Instruments and Northern Ireland Statutory Rules. In addition we hold a selection of secondary legislation from 1948-1986, and selected pre-1948 Statutory Rules and Orders
Legislation originating from the EU as set out in Schedule 5 to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16) along with corrigenda (correction slips for EU legislation) and EU Directives published up to the end of the EU Exit Implementation Period at 11:00 p.m. on 31 December 2020 ("IP completion day").
Most types of primary legislation (e.g. Acts, Measures, N.I. Orders in Council) are held in 'revised' form, as well as selected secondary legislation, and legislation originating from the EU:

Public General Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament (1801 to date)
Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain (1707 – 1800)
Acts of the English Parliament (1267 – 1706)
Acts of the Old Scottish Parliament (1424 – 1707)
Acts of the Scottish Parliament (1999 to date)
Acts of Senedd Cyrmu (2020 to date)
Acts of the National Assembly for Wales (2012 to 2020)
Measures of the National Assembly for Wales (2008 – 2011)
Acts of the Irish Parliament (1495 – 1800)
Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (1921 – 1972)
Measures of the Northern Ireland Assembly (1974)
Orders in Council made under the Northern Ireland Acts (1972 to date) (effectively the primary legislation for Northern Ireland under direct rule, though in the form of Statutory Instruments)
Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly (2000 – 2002 and 2007 to date)
Church of England Measures (1920 to date)
UK Statutory Instruments (2018 to date)
Scottish Statutory Instruments (2018 to date)
Welsh Statutory Instruments (2018 to date)
Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland (2018 to date)
European Regulations (1958 to 31 December 2020)
European Decisions (1953 to 31 December 2020)
European Directives (1959 to 31 December 2020)

New Legislation

RSS Feed from Legislation.Gov

UK legislation

Primary legislation (Statutes or Acts) are passed by Parliament. These pieces of legislation (called Bills) are discussed in both Houses and amendments added and approved by both Houses before the Bill received “Royal Assent” and becomes an Act. See separate tab on Parliament for more detailed information.

Secondary or delegated legislation (statutory instruments) is also produced, usually by specific government departments, but these do not usually need to go through the process of parliament. When looking for legislation it is important to distinguish between unamended legislation and amended legislation. If you are looking for the current law you must always make sure that you look in a source that includes amendments.

Legislation is covered by many of the legal databases - see the box on the left for further details of which database contains amended and unamended legislation.

Printed sources of UK legislation in the Law Library

General Public Acts and Measures

Classmark: Cw UK 10

This is the official printed copy of statutes produced by the Stationery Office. These are arranged by year and are not amended. They are available on Level 1.

On Level 2, the entrance level to the Library are various practitioners' services which sought to keep lawyers informed about amendments, repeals etc via various updating services.

Halsbury's Statutes :

Classmark: KZ2 (older volumes have shelf mark Cw UK 30 H196a)

Multi - volume work arranged by broad subject area. Has statutes as amended and annotated with a looseleaf updating service.

Current Law Statutes annotated

Classmark: KZ5 (older volumes have shelf mark CW UK 020 C976)
From 1947 onwards. Arranged by year. Contains statutes as originally enacted with annotations.

Halsbury's Statutory Instruments:

Classmark: KZ3 (older volumes will have shelf marks Cw UK 090 S797.4b)

Arranged by broad subject these have summaries of statutory intruments with some major instruments being reprinted in full.