Earlier practice was to specify the parliamentary session by the year in which it started only – and sometimes to date its Acts accordingly.
Short titles were only introduced in the middle of the nineteenth century, and it was only by the late 1890s that every individual Act of Parliament had one.
Acts passed by the Parliament of Scotland are cited by calendar year and chapter number.
Only a small number of Acts passed by these parliaments have been given a short title by later legislation.
The system of citation of Northern Ireland Acts of Parliament is almost identical to that for the Westminster Parliament, except that the change to numbering by calendar year happened earlier (starting in 1943[2]), and that Northern Ireland Acts are cited in Westminster legislation with "(N.I.)"
Acts passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly are cited by calendar year and chapter number.
Each Act of the Scottish Parliament is cited by calendar year and the acronymic "asp" number ; e.g., the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc.
Acts of the National Assembly for Wales (2012–2020) are cited by calendar year and acronymic "anaw" number; e.g. the National Assembly for Wales (Official Languages) Act 2012 is "2012 anaw 1" ("2012 dccc 1" in Welsh).
The annual volumes of SIs before 1961, and all those for SR&Os, were organised by subject matter rather than by instrument number.
This means that these instruments should ideally be cited by both number and page reference; thus the full citation for the Trinidad and Tobago (Constitution) Order in Council 1950 would be "SI 1950 No.
Reference is made to "the Regulations as to Cremation (1930)", but the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, the body which oversees SI drafting, noted that the correct way to cite these regulations would have been, "the Regulations made by the Secretary of State under section 7 of the Cremation Act 1902 and section 10 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1926 and dated 28th October 1930".
1" at the start of each calendar year; thus the Radioactive Substances Exemption (Scotland) Order 2011 is cited as "SSI 2011 No.
Legislation passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly cites these instruments by the "NI" number only.
The numbering mirrors that used for the UK's main series of SIs; thus the Prohibition of Traffic (Ardoyne, Belfast) Order (Northern Ireland) 2011 is cited as "SR 2011 No.
Previously this type of secondary legislation was numbered as "Statutory Rules and Orders (Northern Ireland)".
Each distinct "enactment" within an Act of Parliament is called a section (abbreviated "s.", plural "ss.").
In schedules to an Act of Parliament, each distinct numbered element is called a paragraph (abbreviated "para.
The sections within a lengthy or complex Act are sometimes grouped together for convenience to form a Part.
The terminology for the structure of Acts and Measures of the devolved parliaments and assemblies follows that used for Westminster legislation.
During its passage through the Westminster Parliament, each proposed enactment forming part of a Bill is known as a clause, rather than as a section.
The terminology used for the equivalent in secondary legislation of sections of an Act of Parliament depends upon the particular type of instrument; however, the numbering system follows the same pattern.