Citing statutes

There are three ways of citing statutes.

First, there is citation by year and chapter number. In the case of the Energy Act 2004, for example, this form of citation is ‘2004, c.20’, which indicates that it was the twentieth statute to receive the Royal Assent in 2004.

Secondly, there is citation by the long title. The long title appears at the start of a statute and may be quite substantial. For example, the long title of the Energy Act 2004 is:

An Act to make provision for the decommissioning and cleaning up of installations and sites used for, or contaminated by, nuclear activities; to make provision relating to the civil nuclear industry; to make provision about radioactive waste; to make provision for the development, regulation and encouragement of the use of renewable energy sources; to make further provision in connection with the regulation of the gas and electricity industries; to make provision for the imposition of charges in connection with the carrying out of the Secretary of State’s functions relating to energy matters; to make provision for giving effect to international agreements relating to pipelines and offshore installations; and for connected purposes.

Thirdly, there is citation by the short title – for example, the Energy Act 2004.

Although citation by year and chapter number is the most formal method, followed by citation by long title, in practice citation by short title is far and away the most common method. There are two reasons why this should be so. First, compared with citation by year and chapter number, short titles have the advantage that they provide at least some indication of the statute’s subject matter. Secondly, compared with citation by the long title, short titles have the advantage that they involve the use of only one short phrase.