Government opens doors to all legislation data

The National Archive sets up new web site containing all UK legislation

Some 6.5 million legal documents are accessible on the new site

A new web site launched by the National Archives, which sits in the Ministry of Justice, aims to give better access to legislation, from the Magna Carta to the latest statutory instruments.

The site cost £400,000 to build, comprises 6.5 million documents – everything on the statue book – and replaces the existing Office of Public Sector Information and Statute Law Database web sites. Ongoing investment in the site is expected.

John Sheridan, head of e-services and strategy at the National Archives, led the project and told Computing that the site was created to replace the existing Office of Public Sector Information and Statute Law Database web sites.

“We originally had two online legislation services, one for new legislation in its original form and one for revised legislation,” he said. “One of the drivers for bringing these two services together was to create one service with the best attributes from both.”

He explained that his task was to bring the content together in a way that would offer both a comprehensive web site, and make data accessible to third parties such as developers.