Coordinated Publication

How to Coordinate SI Publication with Other Events

In normal circumstances SIs will publish to the legislation.gov.uk web site as soon as the applicable laying offices confirm that the instrument has been laid and/or the specified web publication date is met.

In exceptional circumstances, however, the timing of the publication of the SI may need to be coordinated to coincide with a Ministerial Statement or other event.

In order to achieve a time controlled publication of an SI to allow synchronised activities to take place, Departments must contact the SI Registrar in advance to obtain agreement for the use of the Release on Instruction process.

Only the SI Registrar can authorise this and Departments should not contact TSO to arrange this. Such requests must be made prior to submission of the SI.

On the Day of Registration

If use of this publication method is agreed, then on the day of submission for registration a special code for Release on Instruction must be obtained from the SI Registrar and entered into the Urgent Handling option on Step 2 of the submission process.  Users should ensure they select web and print publication dates on Step 4 that align with the schedule for the associated event(s).

On the Day of Publication

The Department is responsible for liaising with the SI Registrar to advise that publication can take place.  This communication needs to happen in a prompt, timely manner to ensure that publication of the SI to the public domain occurs at the earliest possible opportunity.  Whereever possible, this should be done by email to maintain an audit trail.

Once notified by the Department that publication can take place, the SI Registrar will then authorise TSO to release the SI for publication.  Publication cannot occur if any applicable laying offices have not confirmed laying.

If sufficient time has been provided for print publication and dispatch to have occurred then the dispatch embargo on the print copies will be lifted at the time of web publication.  Recipients of embargoed print copies are responsible for ensuring that the SI has published on the website before opening and distributing print copies.