The Anxiety, Answered First
Somewhere in every SQE1 cohort is a candidate with a highlighter, a statute book and a plan to memorise section numbers until the exam surrenders. Put the highlighter down. Here is how legislation actually works on this exam:
You are almost never tested on citing a section number. SQE1 is a closed-book, single best answer assessment of functioning legal knowledge — can you apply the rule to a scenario at day-one solicitor standard? A question about removing a director tests whether you know the procedure (ordinary resolution, special notice, the director's right to be heard), not whether you can recall that it lives in section 168. When a question needs a statutory reference, the stem usually gives it to you — "the landlord serves a notice under section 25 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954…" — and then tests whether you know what follows.
What you absolutely do need is different, and in some ways harder: for each subject's core Acts, you must know what the statute does, when it bites, and what its key rules require — instantly, without a book, because there is no book in the room.
This guide is the statute map for that job: the Acts that matter in every subject (drawn from the same source material as our question bank), the short list of sections so famous they function as vocabulary, and the study method that fits a closed-book MCQ exam. It completes the memorisation trilogy alongside the essential cases list and the key numbers guide.
How Legislation Shows Up in SQE1 Questions
Three patterns cover nearly everything:
- The stem names the provision; you supply the consequence. "A section 26 request is served…" — the citation is a gift; the marks are for knowing the mechanics that follow. Your job is recognition, not recitation.
- The rule appears with no name at all. Most questions simply describe facts that engage a statutory rule — a two-year-old lease made orally, a company paying a dividend from capital — and the options test the rule's content. Here the Act's name never matters; its operation is everything.
- The provision works as vocabulary. A handful of sections are used so universally that materials, and occasionally questions, treat them as words: section 9 formalities, a section 21 notice, section 25 duties. Not knowing these slows your reading — like meeting "habeas corpus" and reaching for a dictionary.
Study accordingly: function always, names for the core Acts, numbers only for the vocabulary tier.
FLK1: The Acts That Matter
Contract Law
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Sale of Goods Act 1979 | Implied terms in B2B sales — satisfactory quality, fitness, description |
| Consumer Rights Act 2015 | The consumer-contract regime: implied rights, remedies tiers, unfair terms |
| Misrepresentation Act 1967 | Damages for negligent misrepresentation and the fiction-of-fraud measure |
| Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 | When a non-party can enforce a term |
The recurring exam move is choosing the right regime: B2B facts → 1979 Act; consumer facts → 2015 Act. Same doctrine family, different statutes, different remedies — a classic discriminator between options.
Tort Law
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 | Apportionment when the claimant is partly to blame |
| Occupiers' Liability Acts 1957 and 1984 | Duties to visitors (1957) versus non-visitors (1984) — the pairing itself is the exam point |
| Consumer Protection Act 1987 | Strict product liability |
| Fatal Accidents Act 1976 & Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934 | The two death-claim regimes — dependants' claims versus the estate's |
| Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 | The compulsory-insurance backdrop to workplace claims |
Business Law and Practice
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Companies Act 2006 | The spine of the subject: incorporation, resolutions, directors' duties, share capital |
| Insolvency Act 1986 | Winding up, statutory demands, clawback of antecedent transactions |
| Partnership Act 1890 | The default partnership code — every partnership question without an agreement runs on it |
| Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 | The modern identity-verification and registrar-powers overlay — a currency marker for your materials |
Dispute Resolution
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Limitation Act 1980 | Every limitation period in the key numbers guide |
| Senior Courts Act 1981 | Jurisdiction and the courts' machinery |
| Civil Evidence Act 1995 | Hearsay in civil proceedings |
One deliberate absence: most of DR is governed by the Civil Procedure Rules — which are rules, not an Act. Knowing that distinction is itself the kind of detail a well-written option exploits.
Legal System and Legal Services
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Human Rights Act 1998 | The mechanism questions: interpretation, declarations of incompatibility, public authorities |
| Legal Services Act 2007 | Reserved legal activities and the regulatory architecture |
| Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 & Terrorism Act 2000 | The money-laundering offences and disclosure duties every solicitor carries |
| Equality Act 2010 | Discrimination framework in practice contexts |
FLK2: The Acts That Matter
Land Law
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Law of Property Act 1925 | Estates, interests, formalities — the subject's constitution |
| Land Registration Act 2002 | Registrable dispositions, overriding interests, priority |
| Land Charges Act 1972 | The unregistered-land protection system |
| Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 | The pre/post-1996 lease covenant divide — a perennial discriminator |
| Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 | Co-ownership disputes and the section 14 application |
Property Practice
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (Part II) | Security of tenure, renewal notices, contracting out — expanded in the 2027 specification |
| Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 | Contract formalities: writing, terms, signatures |
| Law of Property Act 1925 | Deeds and short-lease exceptions, again — it spans both property subjects |
Wills and the Administration of Estates
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Wills Act 1837 | Validity formalities — the oldest Act on the exam and still its most tested |
| Administration of Estates Act 1925 | Intestacy rules and the spouse's 28-day survivorship requirement |
| Trustee Act 1925 | PR powers and the two-month Gazette-notice protection |
| Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 | The family-provision claim: eligible applicants and the court's factors |
Trusts Law
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Trustee Act 1925 & Trustee Act 2000 | The trustee toolkit: appointment, powers, investment, delegation, care |
| Variation of Trusts Act 1958 | Court-approved variations |
| Perpetuities and Accumulations Act 2009 | The modern 125-year perpetuity period |
| Charities Act 2011 | Charitable purposes and public benefit |
Criminal Liability
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Theft Act 1968 | Theft, robbery, burglary — the most-cited statute in the entire syllabus |
| Fraud Act 2006 | The three ways of committing fraud |
| Offences Against the Person Act 1861 | The assault ladder's serious end |
| Criminal Damage Act 1971 | Basic and aggravated damage, arson |
| Criminal Attempts Act 1981 & Serious Crime Act 2007 | Inchoate liability — attempts, and encouraging or assisting |
| Coroners and Justice Act 2009 | The partial defences to murder |
Criminal Practice
| Act | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (and Code C) | Detention, interviews, evidence-exclusion — the 96-hour clock lives here |
| Bail Act 1976 | The presumption, the exceptions, the procedure |
| Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 | Allocation and the magistrates' machinery |
| Sentencing Act 2020 | The consolidated sentencing code |
| Criminal Justice Act 2003 | Hearsay and bad character gateways |
Solicitors Accounts
The subject with no statute at the centre: the governing text is the SRA Accounts Rules — regulatory rules, not legislation. If a question offers you an "under the Solicitors Accounts Act…" option, you are being tested on exactly this point. (The rules' one hard number — five-weekly reconciliation — is in the numbers guide; the ledger technique is in the calculations guide.)
The Vocabulary Tier: Sections Worth Knowing by Number
The exception to the no-numbers rule — provisions cited so routinely that fluent candidates simply know them:
- Section 9, Wills Act 1837 — will-validity formalities. "A section 9 issue" is how the whole topic is discussed.
- Section 52 and section 54(2), Law of Property Act 1925 — the deed requirement and the short-lease exception: the 3-year/7-year trap's statutory home.
- Sections 25 and 26, Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 — the renewal-notice pair; questions name them in the stem and test what each triggers.
- Sections 171–177, Companies Act 2006 — the codified directors' duties, referred to by number throughout practice.
- Section 123, Insolvency Act 1986 — inability to pay debts; the statutory-demand gateway.
- Section 41, PACE 1984 — the 24-hour detention baseline the whole custody clock hangs off.
- Section 46, Administration of Estates Act 1925 — the intestacy order.
- Section 3, Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 — the court's checklist of factors.
- Sections 1–7, Theft Act 1968 and sections 2–4, Fraud Act 2006 — the offence definitions materials cite by number as a matter of habit; likewise sections 18 and 20, OAPA 1861 for the two woundings.
Twenty-odd numbers, not two hundred. Learn these as vocabulary — recognition-speed, via spaced-repetition flashcards — and let every other section number live where it belongs: in the question stem, supplied to you.
How to Study Statutes for a Closed-Book MCQ Exam
Function first, always. For every Act in the tables above, be able to answer three questions cold: What does it do? Who invokes it, against whom? What is the trigger and the consequence? That is the exact shape SBAQ options probe, and it is how our question explanations are written.
Learn regimes as contrasts. The exam's favourite statutory question is really a sorting question: 1957 or 1984 Occupiers' Liability? Sale of Goods or Consumer Rights? Pre- or post-1996 lease covenants? 1934 Act or Fatal Accidents Act claim? Build the pairs as pairs and the sorting becomes reflex.
Do not copy out legislation. There is no statute book in the exam and no marks for reproduction. An hour condensing an Act into prose you will re-read is worth less than fifteen minutes turning its rules into question-and-answer cards — retrieval beats rereading, for statutes more than anything.
Mind legislative currency. The syllabus moves with the law: the Sentencing Act 2020 consolidated what older materials still cite piecemeal, ECCTA 2023 is live in company law, and the January 2027 specification refresh re-worded several statutory topics. If your notes cite repealed provisions, they are dating themselves — and you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to memorise section numbers for SQE1?
For the vast majority of the syllabus, no — questions test what rules do, and stems supply citations where needed. The exception is the short vocabulary tier above: sections cited so universally that fluent recognition saves you reading time and occasional marks.
Is SQE1 open book? Can you take a statute book in?
No. SQE1 is fully closed book — no statute books, no notes, on-screen questions only. That is precisely why function-level knowledge matters and reproduction-level knowledge does not: nothing in the room will remind you what section 54(2) says, but no question will ask you to recite it either.
How many statutes do you need to know for SQE1?
The core working set is the forty-odd Acts in this guide's tables — a much shorter list than most candidates fear, because each subject leans hard on a handful of central statutes. Coverage beyond the core comes naturally through question practice by subject, which surfaces the long tail in context.
Do I need to know the year of each Act?
Only where the year is the distinction: Occupiers' Liability 1957 versus 1984, the Theft Acts 1968 and 1978, covenant rules straddling 1995. Elsewhere the year is part of the name, useful for recognition and nothing more.
How do I keep statutory knowledge current?
Check your materials against the current assessment specification once a cycle, and prefer sources that state their currency. The specification changes guide tracks the January 2027 position — including the tax-figures change that removed a whole category of memorisation.
The Bottom Line
Statutes on SQE1 are a comprehension exam wearing a citation costume. Know what the core Acts do well enough to apply them cold, keep a twenty-item vocabulary tier at recognition speed, learn the contrasting-regime pairs as pairs — and spend the hours you just saved on the question practice that actually converts knowledge into marks.
All three memorisation guides — cases, numbers and statutes — exist as ready-made decks in our 5,300+ flashcard bank, scheduled by spaced repetition so the recognition tier stays warm from first read to exam morning.