Skip to main content

Security report for legislation.gov.uk

The National Archives · Government · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Email security, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Legislation.gov.uk is the official UK government website managed by The National Archives, providing comprehensive access to UK legislation from 1267 to present. It serves a broad audience including legal professionals, researchers, and the general public by offering authoritative legislative documents and tools for search and browsing. The website is positioned as a trusted government resource with a clear mandate to publish legislation on behalf of HM Government. Technically, the site uses a traditional web stack including jQuery and Google Tag Manager for analytics, with multiple CSS stylesheets for layout and print. The site is moderately optimized for performance and mobile devices, with good accessibility features and SEO practices. Cookie consent is implemented effectively, respecting user privacy preferences. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and implements cookie consent mechanisms to comply with privacy regulations. However, it lacks explicit published security policies, incident response information, and advanced security headers. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content. The WHOIS data confirms the domain's legitimacy as a UK government entity, enhancing trust. Overall, Legislation.gov.uk demonstrates a strong business credibility and content quality with minor technical and security improvements recommended to enhance transparency and protection. The site is safe for general audiences and does not contain any adult or questionable content.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of legislation.gov.uk. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

    • High

      No SPF record found

      SPF helps prevent email spoofing

      What to do: Add SPF record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.yourmailprovider.com ~all"

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  3. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

  4. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain staging.legislation.gov.uk points to unregistered service djk27kgiy8rmw.cloudfront.net

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching legislation.gov.uk

This scan found 26 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
67
Security headers
60
Email security
40
DNS health
40
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
63

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Legislation.gov.uk operates as a government service under The National Archives, focusing on publishing and maintaining UK legislation. Its market position is authoritative and unique as the official source for UK legal documents. The business model is non-commercial, providing free access to legislation to support transparency and legal research. The target customers include legal professionals, academics, government officials, and the public. The site integrates with partner government domains and EU legislative resources, indicating a strong partnership ecosystem. Growth indicators include continuous updates and subscription feeds for new legislation. Strategic observations highlight the importance of maintaining trust and compliance with data protection laws while expanding digital accessibility.

Security posture

The website exhibits a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and cookie consent mechanisms in place. The absence of explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure processes indicates room for improvement in security governance. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found. The use of Google Tag Manager is conditional on user consent, reflecting good privacy practices. Compliance with GDPR is implied through cookie management and privacy notices. Incident response readiness and security culture indicators are not publicly documented, which could be enhanced to improve stakeholder confidence and regulatory compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security frameworks and practices.
  2. Implement and publicize an incident response plan and contact channels for security issues.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to enhance protection.
  4. Enhance mobile optimization and performance to improve user experience across devices.
  5. Increase transparency around data retention policies and vulnerability disclosure to build trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The National Archives
Description
The official home of UK legislation, revised and as enacted 1267-present. Managed by The National Archives on behalf of HM Government, publishing all UK legislation as part of His Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO) and the Office of the King's Printer for Scotland.
Key services
Publishing UK legislation, Providing search and browse tools for legislation, Subscription feeds for new legislation updates
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.7.1, Google Tag Manager, CSS stylesheets, JavaScript
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • Removal of Google Analytics cookies if consent not given

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
good
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is an official UK government service providing legislation data.
  2. Content is comprehensive and well-structured for legal research.
  3. Cookie consent is implemented with clear user options.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers are published on the homepage.
  5. No explicit security policy or incident response information found.
  6. Use of Google Tag Manager for analytics with consent checks.
  7. No advertising or affiliate marketing detected.
  8. No social media links found in the provided HTML content.
  9. No JSON-LD or Open Graph metadata detected in the HTML head.
  10. Forms present are limited to legislation search with basic fields (title, year, number, type).
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a stable and mature technology stack centered on jQuery and traditional JavaScript with multiple CSS stylesheets for styling. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics with cookie consent gating. The site structure is clear with accessible navigation and search forms tailored for legislative content. Performance is moderate with potential for improvement in mobile responsiveness. No modern CMS or frameworks were detected, suggesting a custom or legacy platform. Technical risks include lack of advanced security headers and limited published security documentation. Opportunities exist to modernize the tech stack and improve accessibility and SEO further.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 63/100Medium33 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with legislation.gov.uk. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review legislation.gov.uk.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.