legislation.gov.uk API: Get UK law section
Gets the latest available revised text of a section of a UK Act from legislation.gov.uk, or the Act's section contents when no section is given. The outstanding-changes flag describes the Act and may include changes outside the selected section.
Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by legislation.gov.uk.
Inputs
Values from the run on Oct 31, 2026, shown under Output.
- Act, required
act Act title, with year if known; for example, Equality Act 2010. A legislation.gov.uk Act link or ID also works.
Equality Act 2010
- Section optional
section Section number, such as 13. Leave blank to get the Act contents.
(default)
Input as JSON
{ "act": "Equality Act 2010"}Output
{ "link": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents" , "text": null, "year": 2010, "title": "Equality Act 2010", "extent": null, "heading": null, "contents": [ { "link": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/1" , "number": "1", "heading": "Public sector duty regarding socio-economic inequalities" }, { "link": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/2" , "number": "2", "heading": "Power to amend section 1" }, { "link": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/3" , "number": "3", "heading": "Enforcement" } ], "in_force": null, "version_date": null, "chapter_number": 15, "section_number": null, "prospective_note": null, "changes_still_to_be_applied": null}Code
curl https://api.fous.com/v1/runs \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUS_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"method":"legislation.gov.uk/get_law_section","input":{"act":"Equality Act 2010"}}' # Save as fous.py, then run: python3 fous.pyimport json, os, timefrom urllib.error import HTTPErrorfrom urllib.request import Request, urlopenAPI = "https://api.fous.com/v1/runs" KEY = os.environ["FOUS_API_KEY"]HEADERS = { "Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}", "Content-Type": "application/json" ,}def call(url, body=None): data = json.dumps(body).encode() if body else None request = Request(url, data, HEADERS) try: with urlopen(request, timeout=120) as r: return r.status, json.load(r) except HTTPError as error: message = json.load(error)["error"]["message"] raise RuntimeError(message) from errorstatus, run = call(API, { "method": "legislation.gov.uk/get_law_section" , "input": { "act": "Equality Act 2010" }})# 202: still going after 30 s. Ask again until it ends.while status == 202: time.sleep(2) status, run = call(f"{API}/{run['id']}")print(json.dumps(run["data"], indent=2))// Save as fous.mjs, then run: node fous.mjsconst api = "https://api.fous.com/v1/runs" ;const headers = { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FOUS_API_KEY}`, "Content-Type": "application/json" ,};let response = await fetch(api, { method: "POST", headers, body: JSON.stringify({ "method": "legislation.gov.uk/get_law_section" , "input": { "act": "Equality Act 2010" } }), signal: AbortSignal.timeout(120_000),});let run = await response.json();// 202: still going after 30 s. Ask again until it ends.while (response.status === 202) { await new Promise((done) => setTimeout(done, 2_000)); response = await fetch(`${api}/${run.id}`, { headers }); run = await response.json();}if (!response.ok) throw new Error(run.error.message);console.log(run.data);# Connect your agent to Fous once, over MCP (Streamable HTTP):# https://api.fous.com/mcp# Set FOUS_API_KEY first: create a key at https://app.fous.com/keys.# Claude Codeclaude mcp add \ --scope user \ --transport http fous https://api.fous.com/mcp \ --header "Authorization: Bearer ${FOUS_API_KEY:?Set FOUS_API_KEY to your Fous API key}"# Codexcodex mcp add fous \ --url https://api.fous.com/mcp \ --bearer-token-env-var FOUS_API_KEY# Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Cline and morenpx -y add-mcp https://api.fous.com/mcp -g -n fous \ --header "Authorization: Bearer ${FOUS_API_KEY:?Set FOUS_API_KEY to your Fous API key}"# Then ask your agent:# "Use Fous to run legislation.gov.uk/get_law_section# with {"act":"Equality Act 2010"}"Over HTTP, the answer’s data holds the output. A run still going after 30 seconds answers 202 with its id: ask GET /v1/runs/{id} until it ends.
Schema
Input schema
{ "type": "object", "required": [ "act" ], "properties": { "act": { "type": "string", "description": "Act title, with year if known; for example, Equality Act 2010. A legislation.gov.uk Act link or ID also works." }, "section": { "type": "string", "default": "", "description": "Section number, such as 13. Leave blank to get the Act contents." } }}Output schema
{ "type": "object", "required": [ "title", "year", "chapter_number", "section_number", "heading", "text", "in_force", "prospective_note", "extent", "changes_still_to_be_applied", "version_date", "link", "contents" ], "properties": { "link": { "type": "string" }, "text": { "type": [ "string", "null" ] }, "year": { "type": "integer" }, "title": { "type": "string" }, "extent": { "type": [ "string", "null" ] }, "heading": { "type": [ "string", "null" ] }, "contents": { "type": [ "array", "null" ], "items": { "type": "object", "required": [ "number", "heading", "link" ], "properties": { "link": { "type": "string" }, "number": { "type": "string" }, "heading": { "type": "string" } }, "additionalProperties": false } }, "in_force": { "type": [ "boolean", "null" ] }, "version_date": { "type": [ "string", "null" ], "format": "date" }, "chapter_number": { "type": "integer" }, "section_number": { "type": [ "string", "null" ] }, "prospective_note": { "type": [ "string", "null" ] }, "changes_still_to_be_applied": { "type": [ "boolean", "null" ] } }, "additionalProperties": false}- Price
- 1 credit per completed run (1¢ with pay as you go); failed runs are free.
- Method
legislation.gov.uk/get_law_section- Returns
- title, year, chapter, section heading and text, in force, extent, outstanding changes, version date, link, contents
Use it from your agent
Give your agent this line. It reads SKILL.md, gets a Fous API key and connects the Fous MCP server. Its run then takes the method legislation.gov.uk/get_law_section with the inputs above.
Ask your agent
- What does section 13 of the Equality Act 2010 say right now? I need the current revised wording on direct discrimination.
- Pull up the table of contents for the Data Protection Act 2018 so I can see how the sections are organised.
- Is section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 still in force, and does it extend to Scotland? Check legislation.gov.uk for the latest version.
- Get me the up-to-date text of s.1 of the Theft Act 1968, including whether there are any outstanding amendments not yet applied to the Act.
- I need the revised version of section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 from legislation.gov.uk, plus the version date and a link to it.
See more
All legislation.gov.uk methodsSearch UK legislation by topic or title, with optional type and year filters. Closest title matches appear first; broader text matches fill remaining places.
legislation.gov.uk/search_legislationGets the status, official summary, titles, actions and related bills for one U.S. bill on Congress.gov, found by popular name, title, number or link. A missing summary or text is returned as null.
congress.gov/get_billGets the official text and key dates of one article of an EU regulation or directive from EUR-Lex, in the latest consolidated version when there is one, in any official EU language.
eur-lex.europa.eu/get_law_articleReads the text and details of a BBC News article from its link or headline. Live coverage pages return the latest entries available.
bbc.com/read_articleLists the article headlines shown on a BBC News section page, in page order, with summary, publish time, authors, image and link.
bbc.com/list_headlinesLists the stories on a Guardian section front (top stories, world, UK, US, business, environment, technology, sport or culture) in page order, with the summary and image shown on the front, the publication time (as displayed, else from the story page), and each story's section and authors from its page.
theguardian.com/list_headlinesFinds current eCFR regulation sections for a topic or an exact CFR citation. Returns each section's text, last amendment date and the date the title is current through.
ecfr.gov/get_regulationReads one public Guardian article by link or headline and returns its details and available full-text paragraphs. Live blogs return the latest entries shown on the page; some older articles may be unavailable.
theguardian.com/read_article