Parliament Bills

UK Parliament Bills API

Public structured-data API for UK parliamentary bills — legislation proposed and progressing through Parliament.

Data Model

• Bill — A proposed piece of legislation with a billId, shortTitle, originating house, and current stage.
• Stage — A legislative stage (1st reading, 2nd reading, committee, report, 3rd reading, Royal Assent). Ordered by sortOrder.
• StageSitting — A specific sitting/debate for a stage, with date.
• Publication — Documents associated with a bill (bill text, explanatory notes, amendments).
• Sponsor — An MP or Lord sponsoring the bill, with member details.

Key Fields

• billId — Unique integer ID for the bill
• shortTitle — Common name of the bill
• currentHouse — Which house the bill is currently in: 'Commons', 'Lords', or 'Unassigned'
• originatingHouse — Where the bill was introduced
• currentStage.description — e.g. "2nd reading", "Committee stage", "Royal Assent"
• isAct — True if the bill has received Royal Assent and is now an Act of Parliament
• isDefeated — True if the bill was voted down

Gotchas

• billTypeId maps to different bill types (Public, Private, Hybrid, etc.) but the API doesn't expose a type lookup — use the bill detail endpoint.
• Sessions are identified by sessionId — a parliamentary session typically runs from May to May.
• The lastUpdate field uses ISO 8601 format with millisecond precision.
• Search is case-insensitive and matches against shortTitle.