Apart from the formal parts at the beginning, described in Titles and Introductory Text, the content of a piece of legislation generally falls into two principal divisions: the main body and the schedules. These are displayed on the Results within Legislation page, like this:
The 'Main body' is the name used on SLD for a logical division of the legislation, but it should be noted that it is not referred to by this or any other name in the printed version. The main body is further divided into elements arranged in a descending hierarchy. In the case of an Act, these main body divisions might be:
The illustration below shows an excerpt of a piece of legislation where the main body is divided into Parts and further sub-divided into cross-headings and numbered sections.
The ‘Schedules’ element might be similarly sub-divided, first into the individual numbered Schedules and then their Parts and paragraphs. On the Results within Legislation page, however, the content of Schedules will be displayed only down to Part Level. To access lower levels, such as individual paragraphs, you must first open the Part (or Schedule or other higher level of division).
In most types of secondary legislation, there is also a formal element at the end, referred to on SLD as ‘End Matter’. This generally contains the Explanatory Notes.
See also
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