Legislation

This page gives information about our printed collection of UK legislation, made up of Acts of Parliament, Statutory Instruments, and Bills.

For more help on tracking down this type of information, and for details of online sources, see our guide to Finding legislation.

Where is legislation kept in the Library?

Most of the print legislative material is shelved in the UK legislation section on the 4th Floor of the Library. Microfiche items are kept in cabinets by the 4th Floor Information Desk. View the 4th Floor Plan (PDF)

Bills and some early Acts are held in the Library's Off-site Store or on closed access, and are available on request. See Requesting items from Store and Closed Access collections for more information on getting these items.

Acts of Parliament

The Library receives all current Acts (otherwise known as statutes) of the UK Parliament. Earlier Acts are available in print or online right back to Magna Carta. Some of the early Acts may be in summary from, but the authentic version of all Acts from 1235 to 1713 is in the Record Commission set (on closed access). The Church Assembly/General Synod Measures are included in the bound volumes.

We also hold non-official versions of Acts, which can be more useful because they are annotated, providing explanation or interpretation.

In the volumes of Current Law Statutes Annotated (1948-) most Acts are accompanied by useful comments by academic or practising lawyers. This set includes the Local and Personal Acts (now sometimes confusingly called Private Acts) from 1992, but these are not annotated.

The Record Commission set of The Acts of the parliaments of Scotland 1124-1707 is shelved on the 4th Floor at Middle Folio--344.4102-SCO.

Statutory Instruments (SIs)

We have complete volumes of SIs from 1973 onwards. There are earlier incomplete volumes (1966-1971) and a multi-volume set of those in force in 1948. All are shelved in the UK legislation section on the 4th Floor, at the end of the Periodicals sequence.

SIs that are of interest to local government can be found in annual volumes accompanying Butterworth's (formerly Knight’s) Local Government Reports 1903-2005.

An annual list of Statutory Publications covering the UK, Scotland, and Northern Ireland can be found at 4th Floor Reference--344.

Bills

Bills are included within the Library's collection of Parliamentary Papers. Up to Session 2007/08 these are available (on microfiche) on the 4th Floor of the Library, in print from the Off-site Store or closed access (available on request), or online. After that Session they are only available online.

See our guide to Finding legislation for information about online access.

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