/statute-amendments-trace

/statute-amendments-trace

1. Locate the statute: legislation_search(query="<title>").
2. Get TOC and jurisdictional extent: legislation_get_toc(type=..., year=..., number=...).
3. Check in-force amendments via legislation_get_section for sections of interest.
4. Search for pending bills: bills_search_bills(query="<short title>").
5. Report current status, jurisdictional extent, and pending bills with stage and sponsor.

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Purpose

Trace the current amendment status of a UK Act and surface any pending parliamentary bills that would further amend it. Statutes are living documents — citing an Act without checking its amendment status risks relying on repealed, suspended, or superseded text. This skill checks both the current enacted state (via legislation.gov.uk) and the parliamentary pipeline (via the Bills API).

Workflow

Source discipline: If a uk-legal MCP tool returns empty or errored (status: empty / not_found / upstream_validation / etc.), do NOT supplement from training data or web search. Report the empty result to the user with the tool's next_steps / detail field surfaced, and ask for clarifying information (different spelling of a name, a date range, the source URL) rather than fabricating a plausible-looking answer. Empty results are HONEST signal — not a failure mode to paper over.

Step 1 — Locate the statute

Call legislation_search(query="<title>"). If the user gave only a partial title, include the year if known to narrow results. If multiple statutes match, list them and ask the user to confirm which one before proceeding.

Step 2 — Get the TOC and extent

Call legislation_get_toc(type=..., year=..., number=...) using the identifiers returned in Step 1. This returns:

• The structural table of contents for the Act
• The extent field: which jurisdictions the Act applies to (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland — note that extent can vary section by section)
• Any amended version flag indicating that in-force amendments have been applied to the legislation.gov.uk text

Step 3 — Check in-force amendments

If Step 2 returns an amended version flag, or if the user is specifically asking about the current text of one or more sections, call legislation_get_section for those sections to confirm the current enacted text.

Note in the output which sections were confirmed via legislation_get_section in this session and which were not. Do not assert that a section is current without having retrieved it in this session, or without reporting the limitation.

Step 4 — Check for pending amendments

Call bills_search_bills(query="<short title>") using the short title of the Act. The tool returns current Bills referencing the Act, with current_stage, house, and sponsor for each.

• If the Bills search returns results, report each matching bill with its current_stage, originating house, and sponsor.
• If the Bills search returns empty, state explicitly: "No current bills referencing this Act found in the Bills API at time of check."
• Do not supplement from training data about pending legislation — the Bills API result is the authoritative signal for the pipeline check.

Step 5 — Surface to the user

Report:

• Current statute status tagged [uk-legal MCP — legislation.gov.uk]
• Jurisdictional extent from the extent field, noting any section-by-section variation
• Pending bills (if any) tagged [uk-legal MCP — bills] — for each: bill title, current_stage, originating house, sponsor
• If no pending bills: "No current bills referencing this Act found in the Bills API at time of check."
• Offer next steps (see ## Output below)

Source attribution. All statute status information carries [uk-legal MCP — legislation.gov.uk]. All bill pipeline information carries [uk-legal MCP — bills]. No pending bill may be reported without a bills_search_bills result from this session.

Output

Surface to the user:

• Act identified: short title, year, legislation.gov.uk reference [uk-legal MCP — legislation.gov.uk]
• Jurisdictional extent: from the extent field, noting any section-by-section variation
• In-force amendment status: whether amendments have been applied to the legislation.gov.uk text; which sections were confirmed via legislation_get_section (if any) and their current text
• Pending bills (if any): per bill — title, current_stage, originating house, sponsor [uk-legal MCP — bills]
• Suggested next steps:
  • To see what peers and MPs said about a pending bill: /find-member-contribution
  • To trace a pending bill's full parliamentary journey: /bill-debate-trace

Test prompts:

• "Is section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 still in force? What bills would amend it?"
• "What's the current state of the Online Safety Act 2023?"
• "Are there any pending amendments to the Equality Act 2010?"