Laws of the Land

This Act puts into law the St Andrews Agreement, which was a deal made to fix Northern Ireland's government after violence and political breakdown. It sets out how politicians from different backgrounds must work together to run Northern Ireland's government fairly and peacefully.

This Act reformed how universities and research organizations in England operate and receive funding. It created a new regulator called the Office for Students to oversee universities, changed how research funding works, and gave universities more control over their own affairs while introducing new accountability measures.

The Welfare Reform Act 2007 changed how the UK welfare system works by placing more emphasis on helping people find employment rather than just providing longterm benefits. It introduced new requirements for people receiving benefits and created support programs to help them train and get jobs.

This Act tightens the rules around how pension schemes in the UK must operate and protect people's retirement savings. It gives regulators more power to oversee pensions, requires better management of pension funds, and aims to prevent savers from losing money through poor decisions or mismanagement.

This Act sets out how the UK's tax system will operate after the Brexit transition period ended on 31 December 2020. It makes changes to tax rules so they work for an independent UK rather than following EU tax laws.

This Act approves and puts into law the UK's new trade and partnership agreement with the European Union after Brexit. It sets out the rules for how the UK and EU will do business together, including trade, security, and travel arrangements going forward.

This Act removes trade barriers between different parts of the UK after Brexit, so goods and services can move freely between England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland without extra checks or different rules. It aims to create one unified market across the UK, though it limits how much each nation can set different regulations.

This Act reformed how UK parliamentary constituency boundaries are decided. It changed the rules for redrawing voting areas to make them more equal in size and gave the independent Electoral Commission more responsibility for this process, rather than leaving it to separate bodies in each nation.

This Act allows the government to increase social security payments (benefits and pensions) each year in line with inflation, so the money people receive stays worth roughly the same as prices go up. It sets out how and when these yearly increases happen.

The Sentencing Act 2020 updates and clarifies the rules that judges use when deciding how long someone should go to prison or what other punishments they should receive. It aims to make sentencing more consistent across the country and introduces new guidelines for judges to follow.

This Act allows police and prison officials to ask prisoners questions about victims of crimes and to share information the prisoners provide. It's designed to help authorities locate missing victims, understand what happened to them, or give families closure, even if the prisoner won't admit to the original crime.

This Act allows UK police to arrest someone more quickly if another country requests their extradition (handing them over to face trial abroad), without waiting for a formal extradition request. It's meant to stop wanted criminals from escaping while paperwork is processed.

This Act gives the government the legal powers and framework to organize and host the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. It covers things like building venues, managing traffic, and ensuring the event runs smoothly while protecting the public interest.

This Act is Parliament approving how much money the government can spend on different public services and departments for the year 2020. It's essentially giving the government permission to use taxpayers' money on specific areas like healthcare, education, and defence.

The Business and Planning Act 2020 is a temporary law that relaxes rules for businesses to use public outdoor spaces (like streets and pavements) for things like outdoor seating and serving food and drink. It was designed to help shops, cafes and restaurants operate during and after the COVID19 pandemic by removing bureaucratic obstacles.

This Act temporarily reduced or removed Stamp Duty Land Tax, which is a tax people normally pay when buying property in England and Northern Ireland. It was introduced in 2020 to help the property market during the coronavirus pandemic by making house purchases cheaper.

This Act changes how people in the UK can get divorced or end civil partnerships. Instead of having to prove one partner did something wrong (like cheating), couples can now divorce by simply stating the marriage has broken down, making the process simpler and less adversarial.

This Act allows the government to spend money on a compensation scheme for Windrush generation members people who arrived in the UK legally but were wrongly treated as illegal immigrants, losing jobs and homes. It aims to pay them money to repair the harm caused by government mistakes.

This Act allows people who have been injured or suffered damage to claim compensation directly from an insurance company, rather than having to take legal action against the person who caused the harm first. It's designed to make the claims process faster and simpler for victims.

This Act prepares the way for the UK government to modernise how business property taxes are managed by introducing digital services. It's essentially groundwork to move from paperbased systems to online platforms for handling nondomestic rates.