Legislation Uk

What Legislation Uk MCP server does

The Legislation Uk MCP server exposes UK legislation.gov.uk data through MCP tools. It covers UK Public General Acts, UK Statutory Instruments, Acts of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh legislation, Northern Ireland Acts, and UK Local Acts. The source is the official legislation.gov.uk database, and the service does not require an API key or account.

Search results identify matching Acts or instruments and include full-text URLs. Once a work is identified, an agent can retrieve its title, status, territorial extent, enactment date, and other metadata. Text can be requested for an entire work or for one section. Explanatory Notes provide departmental commentary about intended meaning, but they are separate from the legal text and are not themselves law.

How it works

The Legislation Uk MCP server accepts MCP tool calls through either a hosted gateway endpoint or a local stdio package. The hosted endpoint is available at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/legislation-uk/mcp; the local package is started with npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-legislation-uk. The gateway endpoint also exposes shared Pipeworx meta-tools, while the standalone process exposes only this pack's legislation tools.

Text requests can use current, enacted, or a date in YYYY-MM-DD format. as_at is supported as the date-based equivalent. Responses identify the version that was actually served with version_valid_from; when the requested date falls between changes, a note explains that the nearest earlier version was returned. Repealed or omitted wording follows the rendering supplied by legislation.gov.uk.

Amendment results are paginated in groups of 50 and include counts, page information, and a next-page value where applicable. This matters for legislation with extensive change histories. Search accepts an exact legislation type, a plain category such as act, si, or ssi, or no type; omission defaults to ukpga.

Setup and configuration

For a hosted MCP connection, add the gateway URL to the client's MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "legislation-uk": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/legislation-uk/mcp"
    }
  }
}

For local stdio use:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "legislation-uk": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-legislation-uk"]
    }
  }
}

No environment variables or authentication credentials are required. The HTTP tool interface can also be called directly through the gateway's /v1/tools routes.

Tools and capabilities

• search_uk_legislation finds Acts and instruments by title words and optional year. The former search_legislation name remains available as an alias.
• get_legislation returns identifying and status metadata for a work selected by type, year, and number.
• get_legislation_section retrieves one section in a selected version, which is useful when a full Act would be too large.
• get_legislation_text retrieves whole-work text with a byte limit and indicates when truncation requires section-level retrieval.
• legislation_amendments lists instruments that affected a work or works affected by it, including provisions, change type, application status, and commencement date.
• get_explanatory_notes returns an overview or section commentary when notes exist. Some Acts have no notes, and section commentary is not guaranteed.

Limitations and notes

Legislation can differ materially between enacted, current, and date-specific versions. Section numbering can also change after amendments, so a section available in one version may not exist in another. A requested historical date may return the nearest earlier version rather than an exact-date snapshot; inspect the returned version metadata.

Whole-text responses are byte-bounded and may be truncated. Use the section tool for large works. Explanatory Notes use different HTML layouts depending on the age of the Act, and some newer material is divided into separate content pages. Commentary is explanatory material from the responsible department, not part of the legislation itself.