Read UK legislation text
uklaw_get_documentRead-onlyIdempotent
Read one item or one provision of UK legislation from legislation.gov.uk — as it stands now (revised), as enacted/made, or as it stood on a date — in Markdown, with its editorial status, annotations (the applied amendment history), the unapplied effects touching it, the versions available, and attribution. Provision-level reads are the main path; an item-level read returns the whole text only for small items and otherwise an outline of provision paths to read next. With match_text (item level), returns the provisions whose text matches. Revised text is an editorial consolidation that can lag: read editorial.caveat and unapplied_effects before relying on it, and use uklaw_get_amendments for every recorded effect on an item, applied or not.
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| item | Yes | Item path {type}/{year}/{number} — ukpga/2018/12, uksi/2019/419, eur/2016/679, ukpga/Eliz2/3-4/19 — or any legislation.gov.uk URI (a URI carrying a provision, version, or /welsh is split into those parts; a version or /welsh in the URI applies unless the version or language input is set). Get it from uklaw_lookup_citation or uklaw_search_legislation. | |
| version | No | current (the latest revised text, or the original text for an item never revised), enacted (made, adopted and created are synonyms — the original text), or a date YYYY-MM-DD for the text as it stood then. Omitted: the version in an item URI, else current. A future date returns the latest version, and a date on or after the made or enactment date of an item never revised returns its original text, with a notice; version.applied reports the version served. | |
| language | No | en, or cy for the Welsh text of Welsh legislation (asc, anaw, mwa, wsi). Omitted: cy when an item URI ends in /welsh, else en. English is returned, with a notice, when no Welsh text exists. | |
| provision | No | Provision path — section/45/2/f, regulation/5, article/28/3, schedule/2/paragraph/3, part/3/chapter/2, introduction — or citation shorthand (s. 45(2)(f), reg. 5, art. 28(3), Sch. 2 para. 3), normalized before the request. Omit to read the item; an item-level outline lists the paths. | |
| match_text | No | Item level only (omit provision): return the outline of provisions whose text contains this term, e.g. "processor" — 100 entries per call; outline_offset reaches the rest. | |
| outline_offset | No | Where a returned outline starts: 0 lists entries 1–100, 100 the next 100. Applies only when kind is outline (ignored when text is returned); a notice names the next offset while entries remain. |
Output Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| item | No | The item read. | |
| kind | No | full: text returned; outline: a list of provisions to read instead; pdf_only: the item is held as PDF only (see links.pdf). | |
| text | No | The text as Markdown, present when kind is full; amendments are wrapped as [F1 …] keyed to annotations. A provision with no smaller child provisions that renders over 40,000 characters, counting its annotations, is cut to 40,000, and a notice gives its full size and the links to the full text. | |
| error | No | Present when the call failed. Absent on success. | |
| links | No | Links to the document. | |
| notice | No | Notices: Welsh fallback, original text served for a dated read, an omitted provision window, the unapplied effects an item outline leaves out, truncated lists, an outline window with the outline_offset that continues it, an oversized provision with no smaller child provisions returned whole or cut (its full size, and the links to the full text), and how to continue. | |
| outline | No | Provisions to read next, present when kind is outline: up to 100 entries from outline_offset; empty when outline_offset is past the end. | |
| version | No | Version requested and served. | |
| language | No | Language actually served (en or cy). | |
| editorial | No | Editorial status — read before relying on revised text. | |
| provision | No | The provision read — present for provision-level reads. | |
| annotations | No | Annotations referenced by the text, present when kind is full — the applied amendment history of the version served. When the text is cut, only those the kept text references. | |
| attribution | No | Attribution lines the returned content requires (OGL always; EU and Westlaw credits when applicable). | |
| outline_notice | No | How to read a provision from the outline, naming one to start with; past the outline’s end, its entry count. | |
| unapplied_effects | No | Recorded effects not yet applied to the revised text that touch this provision (at item level, the item’s): the first 20, outstanding first, with a notice when more exist; empty when none. Absent on an item-level outline, where a notice gives the item’s count and uklaw_get_amendments lists them. |