UK Legislation: Structure and Components of Acts and Secondary Instruments, Numbering, Citation, Commencement, Interpretation

Published by a LexisNexis Public Law expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note focuses solely on the structure of UK legislation enacted by, or processed through, the UK’s four legislatures. It falls into two groups—primary legislation and, with a single exception, secondary (also termed subordinate) legislation. The exception is byelaws, whose place in the legislative hierarchy is outlined below but not treated in detail.

Regnal years

Acts are now cited by reference to years (see below), but before 1963 citations used regnal years, ie the year of the sovereign’s reign for the parliamentary session in which the Act was passed.

How to find legislation—principal types of legislation

The principal types of primary and secondary legislation are set out in the table below. In terms of the legislative framework and locating legislation, the key point is that each type employs a distinct numbering series and style of citation. The various citations are shown in the table. The nature of any item of primary legislation is clear from its title. For secondary legislation, the type is identified in the masthead of the official copy.

Primary legislation—types and numbering

Type of primary legislation
Numbering series
UK Parliament (from 1801): Public General Acts — Chapter numbers

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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