Editorial Policy
Know Your Rights UK is a free legal rights resource covering benefits, employment, housing, debt, council services, and consumer rights in the UK. This policy explains how we create content, what sources we use, and how we ensure our information stays accurate as the law changes.
- ✓Every verified page names the official sources it was checked against and the date of that check, with a direct link to each one.
- ✓Primary and official sources only: legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK and the devolved equivalents, with Acas, Shelter and Citizens Advice used to confirm interpretation rather than to establish it.
- ✓Where the law differs across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, a verified page says so.
- ✓A page with no recorded check says so. An unearned date would be worse than an honest gap, because it is harder to spot.
- ✓The check date is the thing to look at when deciding how much weight to put on a page.
The free assistant is offline for maintenance
We've taken the chat assistant offline while we work through a technical issue behind the scenes. It'll be back as soon as we're confident it's giving reliable answers again. Every guide on this site is still here and hasn't changed, use the menu above to find the one that covers your situation.
Our content standards
We write for clarity, not legal complexity. Our goal on every page is to explain three things: what the law says, what your rights are, and what you should do. We do not give individual legal advice, we provide general legal information grounded in primary law and authoritative guidance.
We apply the following standards to all content published on this site:
- Yes: Every verified page names, at the top, the official sources it was checked against and the date that check happened, with a direct link to each one
- Yes: Official government guidance (GOV.UK) is used as the primary secondary source for all topics where such guidance exists
- Yes: Authoritative secondary sources, Acas (employment), Shelter (housing), Citizens Advice (benefits and debt), DWP (benefits), HMRC (tax), FCA (financial conduct), are used to confirm interpretation
- Yes: Where the law differs across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, a verified page says so. This is one of the things being fixed as pages are verified: some older pages describe the position in England without saying so
- Yes: A verified page identifies the statute or statutes the right or obligation arises under, where naming one helps the reader act
- Yes: Step-by-step explanations are cross-checked against the source legislation text to confirm accuracy of summary
We do not rely on law firm marketing content, unverified news articles, comparison sites, or user-generated content as sources. If we cannot confirm a statement against a primary or authoritative secondary source, we do not publish it.
How content is created
Each piece of content on Know Your Rights UK goes through a defined creation and review process before publication:
How we handle legislative changes
Legal information is only useful if it is current. What we keep is a provenance register, one entry per guide rather than per statute, holding:
- Yes: The date the guide was last checked in full against official sources
- Yes: Every source consulted for that check, named and linked, so you can go and read the same page we did
- Yes: What period the figures on the guide cover, where that is not obvious from the page
- Yes: Whether a source is primary legislation, official guidance, a statistical release, or, in the few cases where no official source exists, something else clearly labelled
- Yes: Which guides have not yet been through that check, so the gap is visible rather than hidden
When a new Act receives Royal Assent, when a commencement order brings new provisions into force, or when government guidance is substantially revised, we update the affected pages. We used to publish target turnaround times here, 48 hours for a major change and 7 days for a rate uprating. We have removed them, because a promise nobody measures is worth less than a record anyone can check, and a review of the whole site in September 2026 found figures that had been wrong for years while those targets sat on this page. What we do instead is show our working:
- Yes: Every guide carries a provenance block at the top saying when it was last checked and against which official sources, each one linked
- Yes: A guide that has not been through a recorded check says so plainly rather than showing a date it has not earned
- Yes: A build check counts how many guides are verified and fails if any page is added without recording its sources, so the register cannot quietly fall behind
Budgets and the April upratings change rates, thresholds and entitlements across many guides at once, so they are when the most pages fall out of date. After each one we work back through the affected guides and re-record them, and until a guide has been re-checked its provenance block keeps showing the older date rather than implying it is current.
Recent major legislative updates
| Legislation | Key change | In force |
|---|---|---|
| Renters’ Rights Act 2025 | Section 21 no-fault eviction abolished; new tenancy framework | 1 May 2026 |
| Employment Rights Act 2025 | Day-one SSP; fire and rehire restrictions; zero-hours guaranteed hours | Phased from Apr 2026 |
| DMCC Act 2024 | Subscription trap rules; subscription cancellation rights | Jan 2026 |
Source standards
We apply strict source standards to all content. We only cite and rely on the following categories of source:
Primary sources (always referenced where applicable)
- Yes: Acts of Parliament, as published in full on legislation.gov.uk
- Yes: Statutory instruments and regulations, as published on legislation.gov.uk
- Yes: Tribunal and court decisions, referenced by case name and tribunal/court where cited
Authoritative secondary sources (used to confirm interpretation)
- Yes: GOV.UK official guidance, government-published guidance for all topics where it exists
- Yes: Acas, employment law guidance and codes of practice
- Yes: Shelter, housing rights guidance for England, Scotland, Wales
- Yes: Citizens Advice, benefits, debt, employment, and consumer guidance
- Yes: DWP, benefits guidance and decision-maker's guides
- Yes: HMRC, tax credits, national insurance, and employer obligations
- Yes: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), regulated financial products and consumer credit
We do not rely on the following as sources:
- Yes: Law firm marketing content, blogs, or client-facing guides (these are not authoritative and may be incomplete or promotional)
- Yes: Newspaper or news website articles (these may be inaccurate or fail to reflect the full legal position)
- Yes: Comparison or price-comparison website content
- Yes: User-generated content (forums, Reddit, social media)
- Yes: AI-generated summaries of legislation (we go to the primary source directly)
Where case law is relevant, for example, tribunal decisions on PIP descriptors or employment discrimination cases, we reference the tribunal or court decision directly, not summaries produced by third parties.
Corrections policy
Despite our rigorous process, errors can occur, legislation changes quickly, and the interaction between different Acts and regulations is sometimes complex. We are committed to correcting errors promptly and transparently.
If we have published inaccurate information, we will:
- Yes: Correct the error on the affected page as quickly as possible, within 24 hours for significant errors
- Yes: Note the correction on the page where appropriate, including the nature of the change
- Yes: Update the page's last-reviewed date to reflect the correction
- Yes: Review related pages that may be affected by the same error
If you believe any of our content is wrong or outdated, please contact us at contact@knowyourrightsuk.com with the URL of the page in question and a description of the specific issue. Please include the source you believe we should reference if possible.
We aim to acknowledge all accuracy reports within 24 hours and to resolve substantive issues within 48 hours. We are grateful to users who take the time to flag potential inaccuracies, it makes this resource better for everyone.
Disclaimer
The information on this site is general legal information, not legal advice. It describes the law as it applies in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland (as indicated on each page). It does not account for your individual circumstances, the specific facts of your situation, or any agreements or documents you have entered into.
Know Your Rights UK is not a law firm. We are not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Financial Conduct Authority. Using this site does not create a solicitor-client relationship or any other professional relationship.
While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of our content, we cannot guarantee that all information is complete, current, or applicable to your specific situation. Legal rights and entitlements can vary based on individual facts and circumstances. Always seek professional advice before taking legal action.
The free assistant is offline for maintenance
We've taken the chat assistant offline while we work through a technical issue behind the scenes. It'll be back as soon as we're confident it's giving reliable answers again. Every guide on this site is still here and hasn't changed, use the menu above to find the one that covers your situation.
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