united-kingdom england-and-wales legal-research
How many British statutes are in effect?
<p>How can one find the full enumeration of presently effectual/binding laws making up the statute book at any given time? If they can endlessly be amended by each other then surely they must all be enumerated by some actual list? How does a statute leave the list? Does it simply stay on the list forever until it is effectively nullified by some later statute containing a statement that <em>repeals</em> it?</p>

<p>All(?) current UK legislation may be found <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/" rel="noreferrer">here</a>.</p>
<p>It is searchable on just a word, eg: there are <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga?title=Police" rel="noreferrer">61 UK Public General Acts</a> containing the word &quot;police&quot;.</p>
<p>Or by type: there are <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukmo" rel="noreferrer">116 Ministerial Orders</a>.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/primary" rel="noreferrer">4444 UK Public General Acts</a>, but not all are in force as this includes repealed legislation, such as these <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019?title=Repealed" rel="noreferrer">two 2019 Acts</a> and <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1803?title=Repealed" rel="noreferrer">these two from 1803</a> (the earliest on record).</p>
<p>When changes are made, these are either annotated by footnotes with links to the legislation that introduced them with the option to view the timeline of changes, or noted in an orange box at the top of the page indicating which changes and effects are yet to be applied; <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/part/I" rel="noreferrer">such as here</a> because these things can take time to complete.</p>
