This accessibility statement applies to legislation.gov.uk, delivered by The National Archives.
Accessibility is very important to us because we want to ensure that as many people as possible are able to use this website. On this website you should be able to:
- Skip to the main content when using a screen reader
- Modify the line height or spacing of text by changing the stylesheet
- Change colours, contrast levels and fonts through a custom stylesheet
- Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
- Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
- Listen to most of the website using a screen reader
- Use the website without Javascript/CSS enabled
We have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
In addition, most legislation since 1988, and in-force legislation originating from the EU, is available on legislation.gov.uk in multiple formats including HTML, plain text and PDFs with accessible text. Selected older legislation is also available in those formats, subject to the exceptions described below. See Understanding Legislation for more information on what legislation is held on legislation.gov.uk.
You can read this guide on AbilityNet on how to adjust your computer and browser according to your needs. It covers how to make the text larger in different browsers, change keyboard or mouse settings, and increase colour contrast.
How accessible this website is
The content on legislation.gov.uk varies in terms of document and format type and the methods used for digitisation over time. This means that some kinds of content are more accessible than others. The content falls into the following broad categories.
- Legislation published as part of our remit as the official publisher of original and revised versions of legislation, including official copies of UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland legislation, as both enacted and revised. This content has been published in XML/HTML since legislation.gov.uk launched in 2010
- Non-legislative content, which is predominantly HTML text pages, and includes the following: the homepage, information pages (including Statutory Instrument Practice and the Guide to Revised Legislation), as well as search, navigation and list pages
- Associated Documents that accompany legislation and provide additional context, including Explanatory Notes to Acts, Explanatory Memoranda to Statutory Instruments (SIs), Policy Notes to Scottish SIs, Impact Assessments and Codes of Practice
- Legislation originating from the EU, which is re-published from EUR-Lex, the official EU legislation website (see EU legislation and UK law for more information)
- Selected historic legislation, usually repealed before 1991. Much of this content is only available as PDF, as described below
We know that some elements of this content are not fully accessible:
HTML Pages
- The text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window
- Most images within legislation HTML content do not have alt text
- Some formulae in legislation are published as images only
- Pieces of legislation which reproduce parts of separate documents (such as international treaties or separate pieces of legislation) that do so by inserting the separate document as an image with no alt text. For example, Double Taxation Rules such as The Double Taxation Relief and International Tax Enforcement (Gibraltar) Order 2020
- Statutory Instruments which require text to be formatted using a particular typographical style. These are extracted from the drafted version and published as TIFF files to maintain the exact formatting, as intended by the drafter
- Some older Statutory Instruments contributed by third parties (see our reuse statement for more information) have links to images that are not currently available on legislation.gov.uk
PDFs
Legislation.gov.uk contains a large number of PDFs. Many are provided as an additional publishing format for legislation documents which are already available as accessible HTML. They enable the printing of copies which replicate traditional legislation formatting.
Some content, however, is only available in PDF format and is not accessible.
The content listed below is in a PDF format in which the text is accessible to assistive technologies but is not otherwise fully accessible to WCAG 2.1 AA standard. Examples of the reasons for this are that no default language has been defined and that bookmarks are not available.
- Local “non-print” Statutory Instruments, which fall outside our remit as official publisher of legislation, but which are published on legislation.gov.uk as an aid to legal certainty
- Associated documents, including some Explanatory Notes, Explanatory Memoranda, Policy Notes and Impact Assessments
- Statutory Instrument Practice and the Guide to Revised Legislation
- PDFs of HTML legislation generated via the ‘Print Options’ button, where the source HTML documents are themselves non-compliant, as described above
- Original Print PDFs of dual-language versions of Welsh legislation, where no default language attribute can be assigned to the PDF because the two languages used are of equal importance (Note: Accessible versions of Welsh legislation are already published on legislation.gov.uk in each language individually)
- Occasionally there is a small delay in the preparation of the HTML version of a newly published piece of legislation, in which case it will temporarily only be available as PDF. (Note: Alternative accessible versions of such documents can be made available on request via the contact details below)
Some historic legislation is only available in inaccessible PDFs. Some historic legislation has been scanned from the original hardcopy and converted into text using Optical Character Recognition, creating a plain text version accessible via the Plain View option. For example, The Metropolitan Police (Receiver) Act 1861 c. 124.
Other scanned PDFs do not have plain text versions and so are not accessible. For example, The Representation of the People Act 1948 c. 65. PDFs without plain text versions can occur throughout our historic legislation content. This is because of the varying methods of sourcing and digitising the material over time. PDFs without plain text versions are most common among the following document types.
- UK Statutory Rules and Orders from 1940 to 1947
- UK Statutory Instruments from 1948 to 1949
- Northern Ireland Statutory Instruments from 1973 to 2009
- Welsh Statutory Instruments from 1999 to 2000
- UK Local Acts from 1801 to 1990
- UK Private and Personal Acts from 1834 to 1987
Alternative versions
The official “as enacted” and “as made” King’s Printer Versions of legislation, as they were first published, are also available to purchase in print form.
Copies of most “as enacted”/ “as made” and “revised” versions of legislation can also be made available to users in large print or braille (with the exception of content for which the only format is a scanned PDF) by sending a request to legislation@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Feedback and contact information and reporting accessibility problems
If you need information on this website in a different format, like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact legislation@nationalarchives.gov.uk. We will respond to your request within 10 working days.
You can also write to legislation@nationalarchives.gov.uk to report accessibility problems with this website.
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the accessibility regulations). If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
The team that operates legislation.gov.uk is based at The National Archives in Kew, Surrey. You can contact us by phone, email or Live chat via The National Archives contact centre. The National Archives website provides information about visiting us in person. People with health conditions or impairments that may impact their visit to The National Archives can find out more.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
The National Archives is committed to making legislation.gov.uk accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
Compliance status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons:
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
HTML non-compliance
- Some images missing descriptive ‘alt’ text attributes (Success Criterion 1.1.1: Non-text Content)
- Some images within HTML legislation versions used as links missing ‘alt’ text (Success Criterion 2.4.4, 4.1.2: Non-text Content)
- Images are used for text content (not including logos) (Success Criterion 1.4.5: Non-text content)
- Unable to zoom a page to 300% without requiring the need for horizontal scroll (Success Criterion 1.4.10: Reflow)
- The pages cannot be viewed in small browser windows (width 320px) without using horizontal scroll (responsive) (Success Criterion: 1.4.10: Reflow)
- Headings that skip levels and do not accurately represent the document outline (Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships)
- Inappropriate use of ARIA attributes for Help icons that cause a pop-up (Success Criterion 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value)
- There are links to PDFs and other non-HTML content that do not inform the user of the file type (Success Criterion 2.4.4: Link Purpose (In Context))
- Some data tables contain an empty table header (Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships)
PDF non-compliance
- PDFs which are not generated from HTML documents are not tagged so that the correct reading sequence can be programmatically determined (Success Criterion 1.3.1, 1.3.2: Info and Relationships)
- Images missing ‘alt’ text (Success Criterion 1.1.1: Non-text Content)
- Scans of text do not always provide a text alternative (Success Criterion 1.4.5: Non-text Content)
- Documents over 21 pages do not always have bookmarks or a table of contents (Success Criterion 2.4.5: Multiple Ways)
- Document default language is not specified for bilingual Welsh legislation PDFs (Success Criterion 3.1.1: Language of Page)
- Language of parts have not been specified when differing from default language, e.g in a bilingual English/Welsh PDF where English has been set as the default language, any passages in Welsh have not been marked using the Lang entry (Success Criterion 3.1.2: Language of Parts)
- PDFs do not have a metadata title defined (Success Criterion 2.4.2 Page Titled)
Disproportionate burden
Not applicable
Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
- PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018
- PDFs of legislation originating from the EU that is sourced from a third party such as EUR-Lex
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 21 September 2020.
This website was last tested on 4 August 2020 using SiteMorse, Adobe Acrobat’s Accessibility tester, WAVE toolbar and manual testing. Subsequent improvements to the website were made based on the results of those tests. The tests were carried out by the legislation.gov.uk team with The Stationery Office Ltd.
SiteMorse found the first 150 pages accessed from the homepage and top level navigation using the links within those pages. The WAVE toolbar tests and the manual tests were based upon a set of selected pages (both legislation and non-legislation) that had been specifically selected to cover the wide range of content and pages on legislation.gov.uk.