As the Hansard Society noted in 1992, "[a]t present the accessibility of statute law to users and the wider public is slow, inconvenient, complicated and subject to several impediments.

"[5] The idea for creating a UK-wide legislation database dates back to 1991 when the government awarded a contract to Syntegra, a BT company previously known as "Secure Information Systems Limited", to create a database containing all the public Acts comprised in the publication Statutes in Force together with all amendments made since a "base date" of 1 February 1991.

On 9 February 1996, Roger Freeman, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, announced that the copyright and charging policy of the Statute Law Database would "be decided nearer the time of implementation in 1997".

[10] In March 1999, it was disclosed that "[t]he partially updated database is presently available to a number of users within central government who have access to the Statutory Publications Office Intranet.

These options include free Internet access, the granting of non-exclusive licences to legal information publishers and the provision of a subscription on-line service.

"[11] In September a demonstration version of the database was made available on the Syntegra Track Record website, containing legislation for the years 1985 to 1995, though this was quickly removed.

On 2 August 2006 the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) commenced the second stage of the database project, allowing the system to be tested in use by issuing login details and passwords to a wide range of selected customers including government users, law librarians, police staff, Citizens Advice Bureaux and students.

[16] The delays involved in realising the database led to a number groups requesting the raw data of the legislation in order to put together their own versions.

Among those refused access was Julian Todd, the co-creator of the website TheyWorkForYou, who stated "I can't comprehend what the DCA thinks it is gaining by not giving us a database dump of the law.

I hope it will be welcomed as a useful tool for professionals who need to keep up with changes to the law as well as those who simply have an interest in historic and current legislation.

However, a Select Committee report on the "Merits of Statutory Instruments", published on 7 November 2006, recommended that the database should be extended to cover secondary as well as primary legislation.

The government responded that this was indeed important, but that "[t]he immediate priority is to ensure that a fully revised and up to date version of the official statute book is delivered for use by the public and that work on this is maintained.