legislation-gov-uk-mcp

An MCP server that wraps the legislation.gov.uk API, letting AI agents search, retrieve, and summarise UK legislation. It tracks jurisdiction, enforcement status, and amendment history, and always links back to the original source.

Warning

Community Project, Not Official This is an independent, community-maintained project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially supported by the UK Government, The National Archives, or legislation.gov.uk. It uses the publicly available legislation.gov.uk API under their reuse licence. Always verify information against the official legislation.gov.uk website.

Features

• 13 tools across 6 resource areas: search, legislation content, changes/effects, metadata, publication log, and SPARQL
• Labels every result with its jurisdiction (UK, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)
• Shows whether legislation is In Force, Repealed, Not Yet In Force, Revoked, or Partially In Force
• Tracks amendments, repeals, and commencements with their application status
• Supports point-in-time retrieval so you can see what the law said on any given date
• Every response includes the legislation.gov.uk URL so users can check the original
• Generates proper legal citations (e.g. "Equality Act 2010 (c.15)")
• Passes instructions to AI agents on connection so they cite and reference correctly
• No API key needed. Just install and go.

Installation

npm install -g legislation-gov-uk-mcp

Claude Desktop Quick Start

Add the legislation-gov-uk entry to the mcpServers object in your Claude Desktop config file. If you already have other servers configured, add it alongside them. Don't replace what's already there:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "your-existing-server": {
      "...": "keep your existing servers here"
    },
    "legislation-gov-uk": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "legislation-gov-uk-mcp"]
    }
  },
  "preferences": {
    "...": "keep your existing preferences here"
  }
}

Auto-approve tools

If you'd like to skip confirmation prompts for the read-only tools, add an autoApprove array:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "your-existing-server": {
      "...": "keep your existing servers here"
    },
    "legislation-gov-uk": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "legislation-gov-uk-mcp"],
      "autoApprove": [
        "leg_search",
        "leg_search_advanced",
        "leg_search_new",
        "leg_get",
        "leg_get_section",
        "leg_get_version",
        "leg_get_contents",
        "leg_changes_affecting",
        "leg_changes_by",
        "leg_status",
        "leg_types",
        "leg_updates",
        "leg_sparql"
      ]
    }
  },
  "preferences": {
    "...": "keep your existing preferences here"
  }
}

Config file locations

Platform	Path
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows	%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux	~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Tools

Search (3 tools)

Tool	Description
leg_search	Search legislation by title or text content, with type, year, and jurisdiction filters
leg_search_advanced	Full search with boolean operators, year/number ranges, extent matching, and sort options
leg_search_new	Get newly published or recently updated legislation

Legislation Content (4 tools)

Tool	Description
leg_get	Fetch a legislation item by type/year/number, including metadata and table of contents
leg_get_section	Fetch a specific section or part with its content text
leg_get_version	Fetch legislation as it stood on a given date (point-in-time)
leg_get_contents	Fetch the table of contents structure for a piece of legislation

Changes & Effects (2 tools)

Tool	Description
leg_changes_affecting	List amendments, repeals, and commencements that affect a piece of legislation
leg_changes_by	List changes that a piece of legislation makes to other legislation

Metadata (2 tools)

Tool	Description
leg_status	Check status (in force, repealed, etc.), pending amendments, jurisdiction, and extent
leg_types	List all legislation type codes with descriptions and jurisdictions

Publication Log (1 tool)

Tool	Description
leg_updates	Get recent publications and updates from the legislation.gov.uk publication log

SPARQL (1 tool)

Tool	Description
leg_sparql	Run SPARQL queries against the legislation.gov.uk linked data endpoint

Legislation Type Codes

Code	Description	Jurisdiction
ukpga	UK Public General Acts	UK
uksi	UK Statutory Instruments	UK
asp	Acts of the Scottish Parliament	Scotland
ssi	Scottish Statutory Instruments	Scotland
asc	Acts of Senedd Cymru	Wales
anaw	Acts of the National Assembly for Wales	Wales
wsi	Welsh Statutory Instruments	Wales
nia	Northern Ireland Assembly Acts	Northern Ireland
nisr	Northern Ireland Statutory Rules	Northern Ireland

Run leg_types for the full list.

Rate Limits

The legislation.gov.uk API allows 3,000 requests per 5 minutes per IP address. No API key is needed. The server sends a User-Agent header as required by the API.

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

# Run tests with coverage
npm run test:coverage

# Lint
npm run lint

# Start the server
npm start

License

MIT