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HOW DO I READ AN ACT OF PARLIAMENT?
 Let's read an act of Parliament. First we head over to www.legislation.gov.uk where we can find all the legislation in the UK. Then in the search box, I'm going to search for the Criminal Finances Act. You can see that you can search with the year here, and you can also search for primary or secondary legislation. We are going to look at the Criminal Finances Act. 

When you get to the Act, you can see that you can read it online, or you can read it as a PDF. We will open it as a PDF.

The first thing you see is the Royal Coat of Arms, which shows that this has received Royal Assent. The Monarch has said, yes, I approve this act. This can become law. The Bill is then enacted. To enact means to make a Bill a law.

After the Royal Coat of Arms, we have the short title here, and this says The Criminal Finances Act 2017. Then we have the chapter number. Every Act in each year has its own unique chapter number. This says Chapter number 22. This means that the Criminal Finances Act was the 22nd statute created in 2017. It was the 22nd statute to receive Royal Assent in that year.

Next we have a statement: Explanatory Notes have been produced to assist in the understanding of this act and are available separately. 

Explanatory notes are for laypersons, people who do not have a specific knowledge on the topic, in this case, on the topic of law. They explain the important aspects of the Act in simple terms. Many Acts have these, and if we go back, we can see the explanatory notes here. If we click through, we could get a broad understanding of what the Act is about. 

Back to the Act. We then have a price. In this case, it is £27.50. The Acts are free to download and print. However, it is also possible to order copies from professional printers, and the price is different depending on the length of the Act.

Moving on after the cover, we get the first page with the Royal Coat of Arms, the short title, and the chapter number. Then we have the content, and as you can see, there are parts and chapters. Here we have part one, chapter one, chapter 2, 3, 4, 5. Then there's part two, part three, and part four. 

Later we have, again, the Royal Coat of Arms with Elizabeth II. Again, we see the short title and the chapter number. However, the chapter number here has the date before it. It says 2017, chapter 22. This is known as the official citation.

Then here we have the long title, which describes the Act. It gives an overview of the purpose and content. In this case, it is: An Act to amend the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, make provision in connection with terrorist property, create corporate offences for cases where a person associated with a body corporate or partnership facilitates the commission by another person of a tax evasion offence and for connected purposes.

Here we can see that the date of Royal Assent is the 27th of April, 2017. This means that the Act was enacted on this date. It passed from being a Bill to being an Act of Parliament. Acts normally come into force on this particular date, on the date which is stated here. However, sometimes they state something different in the provisions of the Act.

Next, we have a statement about how the Act will come into force, this is known as the enacting formula. It is a standard text and quite old fashioned, and the text reads: Be it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lord's Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows... This basically means that on the advice of the House of Lords, the Lords spiritual and Temporal are members of the House of Lords, and the House of Commons, the lower house in the legislature, both of which make up Parliament, the Queen, enacts or gives force to the Bill. She makes the Bill an Act.

Next, we have the main body, which is divided into sections, subsections, paragraphs, and sub paragraphs. Here we can see part one, Proceeds of Crime, chapter one, which is entitled Investigations. The headings just give information about what this section is about. It is not part of the law or the rules. 

- A section may be divided into subsections, and subsections are usually each numbered one, two, and so on. 
- A subsection may then contain paragraphs, and these are given letters, A, B, et cetera. 
- Then there will be subparagraphs, which are normally numbered with Roman numerals, 1, 2, 3, 4. 

You may be confused because this Act starts with section 3 6 2 A. This is because this is an Act to amend to make changes to another previous Act. Therefore, the sections relate to the sections it amends in the other Act. New Acts, which deal with new laws start with section one.

Later, when we scroll through, we can see these schedules. Schedules are normally at the end of an Act and they give further details about principles, definitions, and other information. And then after the schedules, you get to the end of the Act. 

Quiz