Halsbury's Statutes 4th Edition: What It Is and What to Do With It

A long row of Halsbury's Statutes, with binders and supplements beside it, can be hard to make sense of when you are the one who has to clear it. Here is what the fourth edition is, what belongs in a set, and what you can do with yours.

What is the 4th edition of Halsbury's Statutes?

Halsbury's Statutes prints the text of every Public General Act in force in England and Wales, with notes on each section. Public General Acts are the largest group of Acts of Parliament, the ones that set out the law that applies to everyone. So where a textbook explains the law, Halsbury's Statutes gives you the words of the Acts themselves, with later changes worked into the text.

It began in 1929 as a companion to Halsbury's Laws of England, and it is published by LexisNexis Butterworths. The fourth edition was published in 50 volumes between 1985 and 1992.

Before it came three earlier editions: the first in 20 volumes from 1929 to 1931, the second in 33 volumes from 1948 to 1954, and the third from 1968.

Why your 4th edition set may hold volumes from this year

The fourth edition is still the current edition. The publisher keeps it up to date volume by volume. When the law in a volume's subject changes, that volume is revised and published again, and the new version is called a reissue. The legal bookseller Wildy & Sons lists fourth edition reissue volumes published as recently as October 2026.

So knowing a set is the fourth edition tells you less than you might think. One fourth edition set may still be the original volumes from 1985 to 1992, and another may have been kept up with reissues printed this year.

Some volume numbers have also grown into several books. Wildy's list shows Volume 12 of the fourth edition published in 2026 in eight parts. That is why a fourth edition set can run to many more than 50 books on the shelf, and why the number of books alone won't tell you whether the set is complete.

What are the Cumulative Supplement and the Noter-up?

Each main volume prints the Acts as they stood when it went to press. The law keeps moving after that, so the set comes with books and binders that carry it forward.

The Cumulative Supplement is published every year. It updates the Acts printed in the main volumes and in the service binders that hold newer Acts. It is arranged by the name of each Act, so a reader can look up an Act and see what has changed in it. Wildy lists the 2026 Cumulative Supplement as a two-volume set.

The Noter-up is a looseleaf binder: a ring binder whose pages are taken out and replaced with newer ones as updates arrive. It lists the changes made since the last Cumulative Supplement came out.

Think of the main volumes as a printed train timetable. The Cumulative Supplement is the yearly sheet of changes, and the Noter-up is the notice board for anything changed since. The publisher's own user guide tells readers to check them in that order: the volume, then the Cumulative Supplement, then the Noter-up. In its words, "It is always essential to check for change."

The other books that belong with a set

A complete set has more than the main volumes and the two updates. These are the other parts LexisNexis names, and they are worth keeping together on the shelf:

• The Current Statutes Service binders. Looseleaf binders holding the text of new Acts passed since the main volumes were printed. Service Binder A lists every Act in the service.
• The Consolidated Index. Published every year, with alphabetical and chronological lists of the Acts, so a reader can find which volume an Act is in.
• The Citator. A guide to the current status of each Act.
• Is it in Force? A guide to when each Act passed since 1960 comes into force, which lawyers call its commencement.
• The Consolidated Table of Cases and the Consolidated Table of Statutory Instruments. Guides to the court cases the set mentions, and to the regulations made under its Acts.
• The Destination Tables. A volume published from time to time that shows where the old law went when several Acts were brought together into one new Act.

How to tell what you have

Three things tell you what you have. First, open any main volume at its title page and the page behind it, and look for the edition and the year that volume was published. Second, the latest Cumulative Supplement on the shelf carries its year, and that year shows how far forward the set was kept up: if the latest one is for 2015, for example, the set was most likely not kept up after that. Third, the full name helps, because the fourth edition's title is Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales, while the third edition was published as Halsbury's Statutes of England.

Can I sell Halsbury's Statutes?

Yes. We buy Halsbury's Statutes, and Halsbury's Laws too if you have both. Our guide to what an old edition of Halsbury's Laws is worth covers the companion set. You can read more about selling your Halsbury's Statutes to us.

Because one fourth edition set can be the original volumes from 1985 to 1992 and another can be kept up to the latest reissue, a buyer needs to see which you have. So photograph:

1. The spines of the main volumes, face-on and well lit, so every volume number can be read in the photo.
2. The latest Cumulative Supplement, with its year showing, because that year tells anyone looking at the set how far forward it reaches.
3. The binders, the Consolidated Index and the Citator, if they are there.

We value the set for free from your photos. If you go ahead, we take the set off your shelves, pack it and collect it at no charge from anywhere in the UK, and you are paid into your bank account.

Leave the supplements and binders with the set while you wait. They belong to it, and our checklist for preparing a law library for collection explains why it is best to keep each set together where it stands.

If you are still working out whether your set is worth selling at all, our guide to whether old law books are worth anything goes through what decides it.

Can I donate Halsbury's Statutes instead?

Not to every charity. The International Law Book Facility, which gives second-hand legal books to not-for-profit organisations, lists Halsbury's Statutes and Halsbury's Statutory Instruments among the books it does not accept. Our guide to donating law books sets out who takes what.

Send us photos even if you think your set is worth little. If its resale value does turn out to be low, we can talk about collecting it free of charge, so a set the International Law Book Facility will not accept can still leave your shelves.

Getting your set valued

When you have the photos listed above, send them to us through the valuation form or on WhatsApp to 07920 748314, along with the town or postcode where the set is kept. We will value your Halsbury's Statutes for free and tell you whether we can buy it.