Legislation basically means Acts of Parliament. These Acts are commonly known as statutes and in the main, prompted by government ministers. There are two types of legislation made by Parliament: public and private Acts. Public Acts are widely applicable throughout the UK and private Acts apply to a narrower band such as individuals and specific activities. Prior to 1972, local authorities relied heavily upon private Acts, although since 1972, many now utilise the broad statutory powers included in public Acts.

Environmental law is predominantly found in statutory form highlighted by the passing of the statutes: EPA 1990, the Water Resources Act 1991, the Water Industry Act 1991 and EA 1995. Other related areas of law having a bearing upon environmental law, for example, planning law, are also statute based such as the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

The difficulties experienced in interpreting the statutes are that they often contain within them ambiguous definitions, but are accompanied by detailed rules which are found within the delegated legislation that is supplementary to the primary legislation as discussed in sources above. Another difficulty found when utilising statutes and statutory instruments is in the understanding of the starting date of the law coming into force. Such dates may be different between each section of a statute and implementing a specific section may call for the use of a statutory instrument such as the Fossil Fuel Levy Regulations 1990 (SI 1990 No.266) to implement the Electricity Act 1989.