Act of Parliament (United Kingdom)
An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is primary legislation passed by the UK Parliament in Westminster, London.[1][2]
This article is about types of acts and lawmaking processes in the UK. For lists of parliament acts, see List of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
An Act of Parliament can be enforced in all four of the UK constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). As a result of devolution the majority of acts that are passed by Parliament increasingly only apply either to England and Wales only, or England only. Generally acts only relating to constitutional and reserved matters now apply to the whole of the United Kingdom.
A draft piece of legislation is called a bill. When this is passed by Parliament and given royal assent, it becomes an act and part of statute law.
That the bill complies with the rules of the house
That everything in the bill is covered by its 'long title' (text describing the purposes of the bill)
In the Commons, that every provision requiring expenditure or levying taxes is identified and printed in italics
Whether the is affected
royal prerogative
Whether it conflicts with or duplicates any bill which has already been introduced
Acts in force[edit]
The UK's Ministry of Justice publishes most acts of Parliament in an online statute law database. It is the official revised edition of the primary legislation of the United Kingdom. The database shows acts as amended by subsequent legislation and is the statute book of UK legislation.
– first law to limit the powers of the Monarch
Magna Carta
– altered the succession by declaring Henry VIII's first daughter Mary ineligible to the throne.
Succession to the Crown Act 1533
– annexed Wales to England.
Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542
– removed both of Henry VIII's daughters (Mary and Elizabeth) from being eligible to the throne.
Succession to the Crown Act 1536
– created the office of King of Ireland.
Crown of Ireland Act 1542
– Reinstated both of Henry VIII's daughters in the line of succession behind his son, establishing the principle of male-preference primogeniture.
Succession to the Crown Act 1543
(1628) – sets out specific liberties which the Monarch was prohibited from infringing.
Petition of Right
– forced courts to examine the lawfulness of a prisoner's detention.
Habeas Corpus Act 1679
(or 1688) – placed (or restated) limits on the monarch's power and established the privileges of parliament, formalising constitutional monarchy and parliamentary sovereignty.
Bill of Rights 1689
– established the line of succession for the monarchy through the Protestant Sophia, Electress of Hanover, disinheriting all Catholics and those who married Catholics.
Act of Settlement 1701
– united the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into Great Britain, abolishing the Parliament of Scotland
Act of Union 1707
– united the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Act of Union 1800
– with later Reform Acts and Representation of the People Acts, made election to the House of Commons uniform, abolished the undemocratic rotten boroughs, and created new constituencies for newly populous industrial cities such as Birmingham
Reform Act 1832
(amended 1949) – allowed the House of Commons to overrule the House of Lords after a delay
Parliament Act 1911
(in force 1920) – disestablished the state church in Wales, creating the Church in Wales
Welsh Church Act 1914
(amended 1928) – extended the right to vote to women
Representation of the People Act 1918
– gave constitutional independence to the British dominions overseas. Numerous powers of legislative and judicial dependency remained; several more acts have restricted or abolished these powers, for example the Canada Act 1982.
Statute of Westminster 1931
– passed the abdication of King Edward VIII into law
His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936
– formally recognised the modern Republic of Ireland by the United Kingdom and abolished the monarchy in Ireland outside of Northern Ireland
Ireland Act 1949
– incorporates the Treaty of Accession into UK law and made the UK part of what is now the European Union providing for the application of European law
European Communities Act 1972
– enshrined the European Convention on Human Rights in domestic law, affecting government decision making, interpretation of law, and appeals
Human Rights Act 1998
– established a devolved Northern Ireland Assembly and passed much of the Good Friday Agreement into law
Northern Ireland Act 1998
– removed the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, leaving 92 seats reserved for hereditary peers to be filled by election by other eligible lords
House of Lords Act 1999
– established an elected Mayor of London and an assembly for Greater London
Greater London Authority Act 1999
- established the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and reformed the office of Lord Chancellor
Constitutional Reform Act 2005
– conferred additional law-making powers to the National Assembly for Wales
Government of Wales Act 2006
– devolved policing and justice to the Northern Ireland Assembly, averting the assembly from being abolished
Northern Ireland Act 2009
– conferred additional powers to the Scottish Parliament
Scotland Act 2012
– established absolute primogeniture in succession to the Crown (abolishing male preference), and removed disqualification from those who marry Catholics, implementing the Perth Agreement between countries sharing the UK's monarch
Succession to the Crown Act 2013
– enables transposition of EU law into UK law, repeals the European Communities Act 1972, and specifies processes and deadlines for ratifying a withdrawal agreement
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
– incorporates the Brexit withdrawal agreement into UK law and "saves" the effect of the European Communities Act 1972 until the end of the implementation period on 31 December 2020.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020
Important acts in UK constitutional history include:
List of legislation in the United Kingdom
– encyclopaedic treatise on the laws of England and Wales
Halsbury's Laws of England
– standard work of authority on statute law in England and Wales
Halsbury's Statutes
which have the same force and effect of acts of Parliament.
Church of England measures
Bevan, Shaun; Greene, Zachary (February 2016). (PDF). European Political Science Review. 8 (1): 49–72. doi:10.1017/S175577391400040X. hdl:20.500.11820/3fc0d812-e924-4f89-b860-a07c4ad93e4a. S2CID 55340762.