UK Statutes – Searching Tips

Here are some tips to help you find what you are looking for in the UK Statutes database on Justis.

Finding a publication reference
Browsing on the Index and Contents screen
Finding amended and amending legislation
Finding implementing Statutory Instruments
Finding a complete Act
Identifying repealed Acts, Sections and Schedules

1. Finding a publication reference

To find an Act of Parliament when you know the publication reference, you need to use the Reference field on the Search In Legislation screen. Just type the reference into the text box, and click the Search button. The document will be displayed on the Document screen.

Publication reference formats for Acts of Parliament.

Alphabetic characters can be upper or lower case, except in the case of “c.”. Abbreviations can include full stops, but they are not necessary except in the case of “c.”.

References to locations within a section or schedule (e.g. 12(3b)) will lead to the document containing the whole section or schedule.

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2. Browsing on the Index and Contents screen

You can find Acts of Parliament without searching and without knowing the publication reference, by using the Index and Contents screen.

You can select a year, and then view the list of Acts on the Results screen. Click the title of the Act that you want to see, and it will be displayed for you on the Document screen.

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3. Finding amended and amending Legislation

Justis gives you access to lists of Acts and of Statutory Instruments that are amended by, or amend or implement the Act you are viewing on the Document screen. Click the green JustCite tabs, and then click the documents that you would like to view.

List of terms and abbreviations

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4. Finding implementing Statutory Instruments

To find the SIs that implement a particular section of an Act, view that section and use the green JustCite tabs to identify relevant SI. Click the name of the SI to view it.

To find all of the SIs that have been used to implement an Act, you can use JustCite to check each section, but it is easier to use the UK Statutory Instruments database; see Finding implemented Acts of Parliament

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5. Finding a complete Act

Many Acts of Parliament are so big that it is not practical to keep them as a single document when they are in electronic form, and so they have been divided into collections of documents. However, Justis provides 2 simple ways to find all of the documents that make up an Act:

Either search for the short title using the Reference field on the Search In Legislation screen, to see a list of all of the sections and schedules on the Results screen.
Or search for the short title using Title field on the Search In Legislation screen to display the Preamble no the Document screen, and then open the Outline and select the “View whole Act” link.

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6. Identifying repealed Acts, Sections and Schedules

Repealed Acts, Sections and Schedules are marked as such on the Results Screen and the Document screen.

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