Import legislation from www.legislation.gov.uk

You can import existing legislation into Lawmaker to create a new working version which you can edit further or copy into other documents. You can import a whole document or part of it (e.g. a specific section of an Act).

The legislation is imported from www.legislation.gov.uk and you’ll need the URL (the web address) of the legislation you want to import.

The import feature is still in beta as there are a number of edge cases that may need further refinement in future and some of the infrastructure used to support this feature is temporary while we await some important updates to http://legislation.gov.uk/ . Subsequent versions of Lawmaker will update this feature and make it more robust.

How to import a document from legislation.gov.uk

First, go to www.legislation.gov.uk and navigate to the legislation you want to import.
Copy the URL from the browser, e.g.
On the Project tab, click on the Document actions drop down menu.
Select Import from legislation.gov.uk.
Paste the legislation.gov.uk URL of the document (or part of the document) you wish to import in the URL field.
Select a folder and enter a version description for your new document.
Click Import.

Lawmaker will validate the URL to check that it points to a piece of legislation on legislation.gov.uk URL. If it is valid, a new working version will be created on the Project tab containing the imported document.

What legislation can you import? (valid URLs/documents)

You can import any primary, secondary, draft or EU legislation that is available on www.legislation.gov.uk. That includes:

United Kingdom Public General Acts
Acts of the Scottish Parliament
Statutory Instruments (Regulations, Orders etc.)
Scottish Statutory Instruments
EU Regulations, Directives and Decisions

You should provide the URL of the document or provision in the document that you want to import. However, if you copy the URL for a document’s contents page, for instance https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2022/3/contents , then Lawmaker will import the whole document (rather than the actual contents page).

If the URL contains a keyword for a specific portion, for instance https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2022/3/section/2 , then only the specified portion will be imported

You can import different versions of a piece of legislation: original (as enacted), latest available (revised), or a point in time version. To do this, use the options on legislation.gov.uk to view a particular version and then copy the full URL from the browser (e.g. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/46/2017-05-18)

There are a few things that Lawmaker cannot import so copying URLs to these won’t work:

Associated documents
EU Treaties
Impact Assessments
PDF versions of documents

Converting the imported document to match the format of your project

By default, when you import a document, Lawmaker will convert it to match the format of the project you are importing it into. For example, importing a EU regulation into a SI project will convert the unique EU provisions into SI provisions. There is more information below about what is converted as part of this process.

If you untick the Convert document to match the format of this document option then the original elements from the imported document will be preserved (e.g.: importing a EU regulation into a SI project will import the document retaining its EU elements). This may be useful for citing/referencing purposes, e.g. when you plan to put the imported content within a quoted structure in your Bill or SI.

When importing a document of the same type of your project, it doesn’t matter whether Convert document to match the format of this project is ticked or unticked.

What isn’t imported into Lawmaker?

Lawmaker only imports the main body of a document (including the schedules, annexes and appendices) and, in the case of an SI, the conclusions of the document (containing the explanatory note).

Some specific elements and information are removed when importing any document type:

any signature block
Editorial notes and markup about amendments to the imported provisions
Formatting information about tables (e.g. column widths, border formatting, landscape orientation)

The following are also removed when importing EU documents:

the preamble
any attachment

Elements not yet supported

The import feature is currently beta. This means that there are a few elements that are not yet supported and, therefore, are not currently imported or are imported incorrectly. These are:

Images
Table notes
Hyperlinks

What happens when you import EU legislation into a Bill or SI

Each EU articles becomes a section in the Bill or a regulation, rule or article in the SI (depending on subtype)
EU article paragraphs become subsections in the Bill (and stay as paragraphs within SIs).
Paragraph numbering style changes to match Bill or SI style as appropriate.
EU annexes and appendices become separate schedules and all the schedules are numbered sequentially. The original number of the annex or appendix is retained and inserted as part of the schedule heading. For instance,

Appendix II
Continuing Airworthiness Arrangement

might become:

Schedule 3
Appendix II - Continuing Airworthiness Arrangement

Within Annexes and appendices, Lawmaker will try and convert the content into a series of schedule paragraphs. Where there are extra headings that don’t fit neatly into the structure of a schedule, Lawmaker will put these headings into empty schedule paragraphs so you can delete them or modify the document further.

What happens when you import an Act into an SI or vice versa

When you import an Act into an SI, Lawmaker does the following:

Act sections become regulations, rules or articles (depending on SI subtype).
Act subsections become paragraphs within those regulations etc.
The numbering style of sections is adjusted (adding the full stop after the number).

When you import an SI into Act, the reverse is done.