The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown dependencies and the British overseas territories. It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and the overseas territories. Parliament is bicameral but has three parts, consisting of the sovereign (Crown-in-Parliament), the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. Both houses of Parliament meet in separate chambers at the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the inner boroughs of the capital city, London.
A statutory instrument (SI) is the principal form in which delegated legislation is made in Great Britain.
The Higher Education Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that introduced several changes to the higher education system in the United Kingdom, the most important and controversial being a major change to the funding of universities, and the operation of tuition fees, which affects England and Wales. University funding is a devolved matter for Northern Ireland and Scotland. After complex and controversial debates, the Higher Education Bill received Royal Assent on 1 July 2004.
The Railways Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning the regulatory structure for railways in the United Kingdom.
The Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It prevents shops over 280 m2/3,000 sq ft from opening on Christmas Day in England and Wales. Shops smaller than the limit are not affected.
The Health Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provides for a number of administrative changes in the National Health Service.
The Consumer Credit Act 2006 (c.14) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to increase consumer protection when borrowing money.
The Equality Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom covering the United Kingdom. The 2006 Act is a precursor to the Equality Act 2010, which combines all of the equality enactments within Great Britain and provide comparable protections across all equality strands. Those explicitly mentioned by the Equality Act 2006 include age; disability; gender; proposed, commenced or completed gender reassignment; race; religion or belief and sexual orientation. The changes it made were:
The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Forced Marriage Act 2007 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It seeks to assist victims of forced marriage, or those threatened with forced marriage, by providing civil remedies. It extends to England and Wales and Northern Ireland – it does not extend to Scotland, as this is a devolved competence.
In the United Kingdom an act of Parliament is primary legislation passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The European Union (Amendment) Act 2008 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It gives effect in the law of the United Kingdom to the Lisbon Treaty, which was signed there by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 14 December 2007. The Bill was first debated in the House of Commons on 21 January 2008, and passed its second reading that day by a vote of 362–224; Prime Minister Gordon Brown was absent that day, and left the Bill to be defended by then-Foreign Secretary David Miliband who introduced it to the House of Commons. A Conservative amendment led by the then Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague to hold a UK-wide referendum on final approval of the Lisbon Treaty was defeated by the Labour Government in a Committee stage debate on 5 March 2008, by 311–248 in the House of Commons. The enactment via royal assent came on 19 June 2008. The Act does not actually ratify the treaty; it merely adds the Lisbon Treaty to the treaties listed in section 1(2) of the European Communities Act 1972. The actual ratification by the United Kingdom of the treaty took place when the British Government deposited the instruments of ratification in Rome on 16 July 2008.
The Postal Services Act 2000 (c.26) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relating to the postal industry. It established an industry regulator, Postcomm (s.1), a consumer watchdog, Postwatch (s.2), required a "universal service" of post to be provided (ss.3-4) and set up rules for licensing postal services operators (ss.6-41). It also converted the public branch of the postal industry, the Post Office, from a statutory corporation to a public limited company, wholly owned by the government.
The New National Consumer Council, operating as Consumer Futures, was a non-departmental public body and statutory consumer organisation in England, Wales, Scotland, and, for postal services, Northern Ireland. It was established by the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007, and began operations in 2008 by the merging of Postwatch, Energywatch and the Welsh, Scottish and National Consumer Councils under the Consumer Focus brand.
The Offender Management Act 2007 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Perth Agreement was made in 2011 by the prime ministers of the sixteen states known as Commonwealth realms, which at the time all recognized Elizabeth II as their head of state. The document agreed that the governments of the realms would amend their laws concerning the succession to their shared throne and related matters. The changes, in summary, comprised:
The Children and Adoption Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Marriage Act 2013 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which introduced same-sex marriage in England and Wales.
An Act of the Scottish Parliament is primary legislation made by the Scottish Parliament. The power to create Acts was conferred to the Parliament by section 28 of the Scotland Act 1998 following the successful 1997 referendum on devolution.
The Merchant Shipping Act 2017 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act repealed parts of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 that allowed homosexual acts to be grounds for dismissal from the crew of merchant ships. It was introduced to Parliament as a private members bill by John Glen and Baroness Scott of Bybook.
