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• Shows whether legislation is In Force, Repealed, Not Yet In Force, Revoked, or Partially In Force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