# Legislation.gov.uk Scraper (`crawlerbros/legislation-gov-uk-scraper`) Actor Scrape UK statute law from legislation.gov.uk. Fetch specific Acts and Statutory Instruments, browse by type and year, get the newest legislation, or search by title. Returns clean metadata plus official XML/PDF links. - **URL**: https://apify.com/crawlerbros/legislation-gov-uk-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Crawler Bros](https://apify.com/crawlerbros) (community) - **Categories:** Automation, Developer tools, Integrations - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $3.00 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Legislation.gov.uk Scraper Scrape **UK statute law** straight from the official [legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk) service — Acts of Parliament, Statutory Instruments, devolved legislation for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and more. Fetch a specific piece of legislation, browse everything of a given type and year, pull the newest published items, or search by title. HTTP-only, no login, no proxy. ### What this actor does - **Four modes:** `browseByTypeYear`, `byLegislation`, `newest`, `search` - **31 legislation types** — from UK Public General Acts (`ukpga`) and Statutory Instruments (`uksi`) to Acts of the Scottish Parliament (`asp`), Senedd Cymru (`asc`), the Northern Ireland Assembly (`nia`), and retained EU legislation (`eur`, `eudn`, `eudr`) - **Clean metadata** parsed from the official Atom feeds and item XML - **Official links** to each item's web page, XML, PDF and table of contents - **Empty fields are omitted** — every field in a record is populated ### Modes | Mode | What it does | Needs | |---|---|---| | `browseByTypeYear` | List all legislation of a type (optionally one year) | `legislationType` (+ optional `year`) | | `byLegislation` | Fetch specific item(s) with full metadata | `legislationType`, `year`, `number` (or `numbers`) | | `newest` | Most recently published items of a type | `legislationType` | | `search` | Title search within a type (or across all types) | `titleQuery` (+ optional `legislationType`) | ### Output fields Feed-based modes (`browseByTypeYear`, `newest`, `search`) return a lightweight record per item; `byLegislation` returns the full item metadata. Fields that aren't available for a given item are omitted. - `legislationType` — type code (e.g. `ukpga`) - `typeTitle` — human-readable type (e.g. `UK Public General Act`) - `year`, `number` — the item's year and number - `title` — the legislation title - `summary` — long title / description (feed modes) - `documentMainType` — canonical classification (e.g. `UnitedKingdomPublicGeneralAct`) - `documentCategory` — `primary` or `secondary` (`byLegislation`) - `documentStatus` — `revised`, `final`, `enacted` (`byLegislation`) - `extent` — territorial extent, e.g. `E+W+S+N.I.` (`byLegislation`) - `numberOfProvisions` — provision count (`byLegislation`) - `statistics` — paragraph/image counts: `{ totalParagraphs, bodyParagraphs, scheduleParagraphs, attachmentParagraphs, totalImages }` (`byLegislation`) - `enactmentDate`, `creationDate`, `madeDate` — key dates - `validDate`, `modifiedDate`, `restrictStartDate` — revision dates (`byLegislation`) - `alternativeNumber` — e.g. Welsh series number (`byLegislation`) - `isbn` — ISBN of the printed publication - `publisher` — publishing authority (`byLegislation`) - `schemaVersion` — legislation XML schema version (`byLegislation`) - `published`, `updated` — feed timestamps (feed modes) - `url` — official web page for the item - `idUri` — canonical identifier URI - `xmlUrl`, `contentsUrl` — official XML and table-of-contents links - `pdfUrl` — official print PDF, English edition when bilingual (`byLegislation`) - `pdfSizeBytes` — size of the print PDF in bytes (`byLegislation`) - `aknUrl` — Akoma Ntoso XML (`byLegislation`) - `versionedXmlUrl` — point-in-time XML (feed modes) - `recordType: "legislation"`, `sourceUrl`, `scrapedAt` ### Input | Field | Type | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | `mode` | string | `browseByTypeYear` | `browseByTypeYear` / `byLegislation` / `newest` / `search` | | `legislationType` | string | `ukpga` | One of 31 type codes | | `year` | int | `2023` | Calendar year (required for `byLegislation`) | | `number` | int | – | Item number (`byLegislation`) | | `numbers` | array | – | Multiple item numbers (`byLegislation`) | | `titleQuery` | string | `data protection` | Title search text (`search`) | | `maxItems` | int | `50` | Hard cap (1–2000) | #### Example: browse Acts of the Scottish Parliament for 2023 ```json { "mode": "browseByTypeYear", "legislationType": "asp", "year": 2023, "maxItems": 50 } ```` #### Example: fetch the Finance Act 2023 ```json { "mode": "byLegislation", "legislationType": "ukpga", "year": 2023, "number": 1 } ``` #### Example: newest UK Statutory Instruments ```json { "mode": "newest", "legislationType": "uksi", "maxItems": 100 } ``` #### Example: title search for "data protection" ```json { "mode": "search", "legislationType": "ukpga", "titleQuery": "data protection" } ``` ### Use cases - **Legal research** — build a corpus of Acts and Statutory Instruments by type and year - **Compliance monitoring** — track the newest legislation affecting your sector - **Legal tech** — feed clean statute metadata and official XML/PDF links into your product - **Govtech & civic data** — mirror UK legislation for open-data projects - **Academic research** — bulk-export legislative metadata for analysis ### FAQ **What is legislation.gov.uk?** The official home of UK legislation, managed by The National Archives. It publishes most UK legislation and is free to use and re-use under the Open Government Licence. **What do the type codes mean?** Each jurisdiction and instrument has a short code — `ukpga` (UK Public General Act), `uksi` (UK Statutory Instrument), `asp` (Act of the Scottish Parliament), `asc` (Act of Senedd Cymru), `nia` (Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly), and 26 more, all selectable in the input. **How do I find an item's number?** Legislation is identified by type + year + number, e.g. the Finance Act 2023 is `ukpga/2023/1`. Use `browseByTypeYear` or `search` to discover numbers, then `byLegislation` for full detail. **What does `extent` mean?** The territorial extent — where the legislation applies. `E+W+S+N.I.` means England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; `S` means Scotland only. **What's the difference between `revised` and `enacted`?** `documentStatus` reflects whether you're seeing the up-to-date revised text or the text as originally enacted/made. **Is the data official?** Yes — every record links back to the official legislation.gov.uk page, XML, PDF and table of contents. **How fresh is the data?** legislation.gov.uk publishes new legislation continuously; the `newest` mode surfaces the latest items and each item carries `published`/`updated` timestamps. # Actor input Schema ## `mode` (type: `string`): What to fetch. ## `legislationType` (type: `string`): The legislation.gov.uk document-type code. ## `year` (type: `integer`): Calendar year of the legislation (required for byLegislation; optional filter for browseByTypeYear). ## `number` (type: `integer`): The item number within the type + year (e.g. `1` for the first Act of that year). ## `numbers` (type: `array`): Multiple item numbers to fetch for the given type + year. ## `titleQuery` (type: `string`): Free-text title search (e.g. `data protection`). ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Hard cap on emitted records. ## Actor input object example ```json { "mode": "browseByTypeYear", "legislationType": "ukpga", "year": 2023, "numbers": [], "titleQuery": "data protection", "maxItems": 20 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `legislation` (type: `string`): Dataset containing all scraped legislation.gov.uk records. # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "mode": "browseByTypeYear", "legislationType": "ukpga", "year": 2023, "numbers": [], "titleQuery": "data protection", "maxItems": 20 }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("crawlerbros/legislation-gov-uk-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "mode": "browseByTypeYear", "legislationType": "ukpga", "year": 2023, "numbers": [], "titleQuery": "data protection", "maxItems": 20, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("crawlerbros/legislation-gov-uk-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "mode": "browseByTypeYear", "legislationType": "ukpga", "year": 2023, "numbers": [], "titleQuery": "data protection", "maxItems": 20 }' | apify call crawlerbros/legislation-gov-uk-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=crawlerbros/legislation-gov-uk-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Legislation.gov.uk Scraper", "description": "Scrape UK statute law from legislation.gov.uk. Fetch specific Acts and Statutory Instruments, browse by type and year, get the newest legislation, or search by title. Returns clean metadata plus official XML/PDF links.", "version": "1.0", "x-build-id": "WeAlgtwHklgseaCQL" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/crawlerbros~legislation-gov-uk-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-crawlerbros-legislation-gov-uk-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/crawlerbros~legislation-gov-uk-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-crawlerbros-legislation-gov-uk-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/crawlerbros~legislation-gov-uk-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-crawlerbros-legislation-gov-uk-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "mode" ], "properties": { "mode": { "title": "Mode", "enum": [ "browseByTypeYear", "byLegislation", "newest", "search" ], "type": "string", "description": "What to fetch.", "default": "browseByTypeYear" }, "legislationType": { "title": "Legislation type", "enum": [ "ukpga", "ukla", "ukppa", "uksi", "ukdsi", "uksro", "ukmo", "ukcm", "ukci", "asp", "ssi", "sdsi", "asc", "anaw", "mwa", "wsi", "nia", "apni", "mnia", "nisi", "nisr", "nidsr", "nisro", "aosp", "aep", "aip", "apgb", "gbla", "eur", "eudn", "eudr" ], "type": "string", "description": "The legislation.gov.uk document-type code.", "default": "ukpga" }, "year": { "title": "Year", "minimum": 1200, "maximum": 2100, "type": "integer", "description": "Calendar year of the legislation (required for byLegislation; optional filter for browseByTypeYear)." }, "number": { "title": "Number (mode=byLegislation)", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 100000, "type": "integer", "description": "The item number within the type + year (e.g. `1` for the first Act of that year)." }, "numbers": { "title": "Numbers (mode=byLegislation, batch)", "type": "array", "description": "Multiple item numbers to fetch for the given type + year.", "default": [], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "titleQuery": { "title": "Title query (mode=search)", "type": "string", "description": "Free-text title search (e.g. `data protection`)." }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max items", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 2000, "type": "integer", "description": "Hard cap on emitted records.", "default": 50 } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```