Statute Atlas Chapter 1 of 6
Volume
Parliament has passed laws in bursts, not at a steady rate. The output follows the business of each government and the 1908 consolidation, when most of the statute book was re-enacted at once.
In this chapter
- How many Acts does Parliament pass a year?
- Are new Acts getting longer?
- Which towns got Acts of their own?
In brief
- Parliament's busiest year was 1908, with 298 Acts
- The typical new Act is 3.9 times longer than in the 1950s
- So far: One Act amended 40 others at once: the Building Act 2004
- So far: The longest Act ever passed is the Property Law Act 2007, at 78,587 words
- Local Acts for single towns and harbours peaked in the 1900s
As at 28 October 2026. Each line is the headline of a chart below.