Frequently Asked Legal Research Questions

How do I check if an Act has been amended?

Free web sources

·        UK Statute Law Database — www.statutelaw.gov.uk/ — this is a publicly available web site of consolidated UK primary legislation currently in force or in force as at any date from February 1991. To find an Act there is an alphabetical index, a chronological index and also search boxes to enter the title and year.

     NB The SLD is not yet completely up to date. A warning notice will appear in the "Results within Legislation" page in cases where an Act has not been fully updated. This lists the years for which there are outstanding amendments. In addition there are "Tables of Legislative Effect" which identify the repeals and amendments not yet applied to the database.

Hard copy sources

·        Halsbury’s Statutes — contains the text of Acts as amended. Remember the bound volumes may be out of date so use the Cumulative Supplement and Noter-Up to bring information up to date. The notes give details of the amendments. There is also a Statute Citator volume which gives information on amendments

·        Current Law Legislation Citators — list details of amendments 1947 onwards for each Act, section by section

Subscription-based databases

·        Justis — gives details of subsequent amendments, but not the amended text

·        Lawtel — use the Statutory Law database and then the Statutory Status Table for details of amendments

·        LexisNexis Professional — the notes that accompany the text give details of amendments

·        LNB Legislation Direct — the Acts are as amended 

·        Westlaw — the Acts are as amended 

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