The UK Statute Law Database
The UK Statute Law Database (SLD) is the official revised edition of the primary legislation of the United Kingdom made available online. For more information about SLD and what it contains see Help.
SLD made simple
view amended legislation as it has changed over time
the green "A" icon will reveal the "attributes" of the legislation (e.g. start date, extent) and let you move between versions
see how legislation will be affected by amendments not yet in force
the blue "P" icon indicates provisions, and versions of amended provisions, that have not yet been brought into force
see how legislation has been amended for different jurisdictions
the yellow "C" icon denotes provisions that have "concurrent versions" (e.g. one for England and Wales and another for Scotland)
navigate links between affecting and affected legislation
the purple arrow appears in affecting legislation against an amendment etc that has been applied and will take you to the affected legislation
search the text of legislation for words and phrases
when you complete a text search, the red star icon will appear in the results list to show you which provisions match your search criteria
You can find out more about these and other features of SLD in Help.
Messages
New legislation.gov.uk website
The new legislation.gov.uk website was launched on 29th July. The new site brings together legislation from SLD with the 'as enacted' legislation currently published on the OPSI website to provide a single legislation service that will replace the current services. The SLD website will remain in place until all content and functionality is available on the new site. There are a few Acts that have not yet been migrated from SLD. These will be loaded onto the new site over the next month. Some functionality currently available on SLD is not yet available on legislation.gov.uk (full content search, 'Geographical Extent' and 'Point in Time' advanced search options, 'Confers Power' and 'Blanket Amendment' information). This functionality will be added in a series of releases over the summer. [30.7.2010]
Primary Legislation Latest
New 2010 primary legislation now available: UK Public General Acts Chapters 1 to 32; Acts of the Scottish Parliament asps 1 to 11; Measures of the National Assembly for Wales nawms 1 to 4; Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly Chapters 1 to 11. Enacted but not yet available: asps 12 to 14; N.I. Chapter 12. These will follow as soon as possible. For further information about recent legislation on SLD see New Legislation [Message updated 23.8.2010]
Update Status of SLD
Work on updating the primary legislation on SLD is continually in progress. For information about how to find out the date to which any piece of legislation has been revised and how to obtain details of any effects that have not yet been applied to it, please see Update Status of Legislation.