One call answers "what does section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 say?" or "wat zegt artikel 7:658 BW?": the section or article as plain text from the official consolidated version in force today (or on any date), whether it is in force, and what changed it. Built for AI agents doing legal and compliance work, and for people who want a sourced answer without XML.

Price$0.01 per article or act returned

DomainCompliance & law

Call itApify API, MCP or HTTP API

Pricing (pay per event): $0.01 per article or act returned (act-lookup). A citation that can't be read, or an article that doesn't exist, fails in seconds and costs nothing.

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Questions agents ask

“What does article 13 of the Dutch Wet op de vennootschapsbelasting 1969 say as of 1 January 2025? Quote it and link the source.”

What you get

Field	Type	Meaning
`schema_version`	string	Output schema version.
`query`	string \| null	The query as given.
`jurisdiction`	string	"UK" or "NL".
`act_id`	string	Identifier of the act: legislation.gov.uk path ("ukpga/2006/46") or BWB id ("BWBR0005290"). Same role as celex in eu-law-lookup.
`eli`	string \| null	European Legislation Identifier URI (UK, e.g. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ukpga/2006/46); null for NL.
`title`	string \| null	Short title or citeertitel, e.g. "Companies Act 2006", "Burgerlijk Wetboek Boek 7".
`long_title`	string \| null	Long title (UK) or intitule (NL).
`act_type`	string \| null	Type of act, e.g. "UK Public General Act", "UK Statutory Instrument", "Wet", "Algemene maatregel van bestuur".
`act_type_code`	string \| null	Source code for the type: legislation.gov.uk type (ukpga, uksi, asp...) or BWB soort (wet, AMvB, ministeriele-regeling...).
`date_document`	string \| null	UK: date of Royal Assent or making; NL: date of signature. YYYY-MM-DD.
`date_publication`	string \| null	NL: issue date of the original Staatsblad/Staatscourant; null when unknown and for UK.
`official_publication`	string \| null	Official reference: UK chapter or SI number ("2006 c. 46", "S.I. 2003/2426"), NL publication ("Stb. 1991, 600"). Same role as oj_reference in eu-law-lookup.
`date_entry_into_force`	string \| null	UK article rows: when the section came into force (from its commencement note); NL: when the regulation first entered into force. YYYY-MM-DD.
`date_end_of_validity`	string \| null	NL: last day of the last consolidated version when the regulation has lapsed (vervallen); null when open-ended and for UK.
`in_force`	boolean \| null	Whether the returned article (for NL act rows: the act) is in force on as_of (default today). UK act rows: null.
`act_url`	string	Official page of the act (legislation.gov.uk id URI or wetten.overheid.nl).
`language`	string	Language of the text: EN (UK) or NL (NL).
`as_of`	string \| null	The asOf date used (null = today).
`latest_consolidated_version_date`	string \| null	Date of the newest consolidated (revised) version the source holds; may be later than as_of.
`text_version`	string \| null	"consolidated" (revised / geconsolideerde tekst) or "original" (as enacted or made, UK only).
`consolidated_version_date`	string \| null	Date from which the version used applies, YYYY-MM-DD.
`text_notice`	string \| null	Licence attribution and the source's status note: revised texts are editorial consolidations; for NL the authentic text is the Staatsblad/Staatscourant publication.
`source_url`	string	Page of the exact text version used (article-level when available).
`data_url`	string \| null	The XML the text was read from. Same role as cellar_url in eu-law-lookup.
`article`	string \| null	The section, regulation or article returned, e.g. "172", "658", "8:1"; null for an act-level row.
`paragraph`	string \| null	The subsection (UK) or lid (NL) returned; null = whole article.
`article_title`	string \| null	Heading of the section or article (UK sections have one; most Dutch articles do not).
`article_text`	string \| null	Plain text, one line per subsection, paragraph or list item, numbering kept (UK "(1)", "(a)"; NL "1.", "a.").
`article_text_truncated`	boolean \| null	True when article_text was cut at maxTextChars.
`article_amended_by`	array	Changes to this article: UK textual amendments shown with it (F-notes), NL the publication that last changed it. Items {source, date, change, url}.
`pending_changes`	array	UK: changes legislation.gov.uk lists as not yet applied to this provision, {type, affected, source, url, in_force_date}. Always [] for NL.
`articles_count`	integer \| null	Act-level row: number of sections or articles (NL: not repealed).
`table_of_contents`	array	Act-level row: [{article, title}] for up to 500 sections or articles, to pick one for a follow-up call.
`warnings`	array	Caveats in plain words: not in force on asOf, repealed, newer version coming, fallbacks, truncation.
`retrieved_at`	string	When the row was made (ISO 8601, UTC).
`duration_seconds`	number	How long the lookup took.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Add this URL to your MCP client (Claude, Cursor, VS Code, ...) to load the Actor as a tool through the Apify hosted MCP server. It signs you in with OAuth or accepts Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>. It works once the Actor is live on the Apify Store.

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=bosco_labs/national-law-lookup

For “What does article 13 of the Dutch Wet op de vennootschapsbelasting 1969 say as of 1 January 2025? Quote it and link the source.” the agent passes:

{ "query": "artikel 13 Wet Vpb 1969", "asOf": "2025-01-01" }

small JSON rows (typically 3-15 KB), stable snake_case fields, ISO dates, null for unknown, a link to the exact version. warnings says in plain words when the text is not in force on asOf, a newer version is coming, or changes are not yet applied. A Dutch lookup takes under a second after start-up; a UK lookup about 1 second, plus 5 seconds per extra request (a short title that isn't in our list, or each extra section), because legislation.gov.uk asks clients to wait 5 seconds between requests.

Or call the Apify API: POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/bosco_labs~national-law-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items with the input as JSON body. Cost: $0.01 per article or act returned.

HTTP API

Also on the Bosco Labs HTTP API (beta, test mode): same input and same rows as the Actor, $0.005 per article or act returned from prepaid credits (max 10 articles per call). Get a key with a $0.50 free trial; see prices and limits.

curl https://api.boscolabs.dev/v1/national-law-lookup \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BOSCO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "artikel 13 Wet Vpb 1969", "asOf": "2025-01-01"}'

UK: contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (© Crown and database right, legislation.gov.uk).

Input fields

Field	Type	Meaning
`query`	string (required)	The act, optionally with the article. UK: a short title with a section ("Companies Act 2006 s 172", "section 172 of the Companies Act 2006"), a short name ("CA 2006", "DPA 2018", "UK GDPR", "PECR"; 35 common acts), a legislation.gov.uk path or URL ("ukpga/2006/46/section/172"), a chapter ("2006 c. 46") or an SI ("S.I. 2003/2426 reg 6"). NL: "BW 7:658", "artikel 13 Wet Vpb 1969", "Awb 8:1", "art. 310 Sr", an abbreviation (BW1-10, Sr, Sv, Rv, Awb, UAVG, Wft, Wwft, Woo ...), a citeertitel, a BWB id ("BWBR0002672"), a jci reference or a wetten.overheid.nl URL. Required. An unreadable citation fails in seconds, with examples, at no charge.
`jurisdiction`	string	"UK" or "NL". Default empty = detected from the citation (paths, BWB ids, known names, Dutch or English words); set it when a bare name is ambiguous.
`article`	string	Section, regulation or article number, optionally with a subsection or lid: "172", "172(1)", "7:658", "13 lid 2", "8:1"; several separated by commas (up to 5, e.g. "171, 172"). One row per article. Overrides an article in the query. Empty = the article in the query, or else one row for the whole act with its table of contents.
`asOf`	string	YYYY-MM-DD, e.g. "2025-01-01": return the text as in force on that date (UK point-in-time version; NL consolidated version, newest correction). Empty = today.
`language`	string	Optional, "EN" or "NL". UK texts are English and Dutch texts are Dutch: there is no official English translation of Dutch legislation, so EN for a Dutch act returns the Dutch text with a warning. Default empty = the source language.
`maxTextChars`	integer	Cap on article_text, in characters, e.g. 30000 (default). Longer text is cut and flagged (article_text_truncated) with a warning.

Sources, licence and limits

Where does the data come from? UK: legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives), its Legislation API XML. NL: the Basiswettenbestand (BWB) open-data repository of KOOP, the same consolidated texts wetten.overheid.nl shows; names not in our abbreviation list are looked up in the official BWB search service (SRU). Nothing else is added, and the text is not rewritten or summarised.

Is the consolidated text the law? It is an editorial consolidation, not the authentic publication. For Dutch law the authentic text is the publication in the Staatsblad or Staatscourant (Bekendmakingswet, art. 4-5); the row names that publication and links it. UK revised texts are prepared by the legislation.gov.uk editorial team and may not yet include every change: check pending_changes. Every row carries this in text_notice.

Is this legal advice? No. It returns official texts and metadata as published; it does not interpret them.

Is there an English version of Dutch law? No official one. Dutch texts are returned in Dutch; ask your agent to translate and say that the translation is unofficial.

Which acts work? UK: all legislation on legislation.gov.uk with numbered sections, regulations or articles (Acts of the UK, Scottish, Welsh and NI parliaments, SIs, retained EU law such as the UK GDPR). Schedules are not split out yet. NL: every regulation in the BWB (wetten, AMvB's, ministeriële regelingen, beleidsregels), with versions from about 2002 (the start of the BWB's history) onwards.

How current is it? Live: every call reads the source. Dutch versions appear when KOOP publishes them (usually on the day they take effect); legislation.gov.uk applies changes after they are made, so recent amendments can sit in pending_changes for a while.

Points like 172(1)(a)? The subsection is returned whole; points are lines inside it.

Personal data? None is requested or returned beyond what the published legislation contains.

Content: UK, contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (© Crown and database right, legislation.gov.uk). NL, Basiswettenbestand (KOOP); Dutch legislation is not protected by copyright (Auteurswet art. 11). XML is converted to plain text and long texts are cut where maxTextChars says; nothing else is changed.

Coming soon to the Apify StoreAsk for early access

UK & Dutch Law Lookup API: article text by date, in force

Questions agents ask

Example

Input

Output

What you get

Use with AI agents (MCP)

HTTP API

Input fields

Sources, licence and limits