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legislation.gov.uk API: Search UK legislation

Search 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 (opens in a new tab)Version 1ReadNo sign-inVerified Nov 2, 2026

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Inputs

Values from the run on Oct 31, 2026, shown under Output.

Type optionaltype

Kind of legislation, for example uk_act; any searches every kind.

northern_ireland_act

One of any, uk_act, statutory_instrument, scottish_act, welsh_act, northern_ireland_act. Default any.

Year optionalyear

Year of enactment or making, for example 2018.

Not set

Whole number from 1000 to 9999.

Query, requiredquery

Topic or title words to search, for example data protection.

education

Max Results optionalmax_results

Maximum laws to return, for example 20.

3

Whole number from 1 to 100. Default 20.

Output

From a run on Oct 31, 2026.
{  "laws": [    {      "link": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2014/12",      "type": "Northern Ireland Act",      "year": 2014,      "title": "Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2014",      "number": "2014 c. 12 (N.I.)",      "enacted_or_made_date": "2014-12-11"    },    {      "link": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2022/15",      "type": "Northern Ireland Act",      "year": 2022,      "title": "Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022",      "number": "2022 c. 15 (N.I.)",      "enacted_or_made_date": "2022-04-26"    },    {      "link": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2016/20",      "type": "Northern Ireland Act",      "year": 2016,      "title": "Shared Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2016",      "number": "2016 c. 20 (N.I.)",      "enacted_or_made_date": "2016-05-09"    }  ]}
Price
1 credit per completed run (1¢ with pay as you go); failed runs are free.
Method
legislation.gov.uk/search_legislation
Returns
title, year, type, number as cited, date enacted or made, link

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/search_legislation with the inputs above.

Ask your agent

  • Find UK Acts of Parliament about modern slavery, with their citation numbers and dates of enactment
  • Which statutory instruments made in 2020 relate to coronavirus restrictions? Give me up to 50 with links.
  • Search legislation.gov.uk for Scottish Acts on land reform
  • I need a list of Welsh laws about the environment from 2016, including the date each was made
  • Look up Northern Ireland Acts concerning pensions on legislation.gov.uk and show the top 10 matches
  • 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.

    legislation.gov.uk/get_law_section
  • Searches EUR-Lex legal acts by topic, ranked by the site's relevance, filtered by document type, year of adoption and in-force status. Short names and ELI links are included when shown in the results.

    eur-lex.europa.eu/search_eu_law
  • Searches UK court judgments and tribunal decisions on Find Case Law by keywords or party names. Results can be filtered by court and by judgment date.

    caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search_judgments
  • Checks a name against the current UK Sanctions List and returns possible matches in the site's best-match order, with designation details. Results may include entries that only mention the name in their reasons, so check each entry before identifying anyone.

    gov.uk/check_sanctions
  • Lists a UK company's Companies House filings, newest first, with date, form code, type, description, page count and PDF link. Finds the company by name, company number or Companies House link; a category picks accounts, confirmation statements, officers, address, capital, charges or incorporation filings.

    find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/list_filing_history
  • Searches the UK Companies House register by company name and returns each company's status, type, incorporation date and registered office address, in result order.

    find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/search_companies
  • Gets 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_article
  • Find Federal Register rules, proposed rules, notices, and presidential documents by topic, agency, publication dates, and comment status. Significant means designated significant by the source; documents without that designation show no.

    federalregister.gov/search_rules