FAQ

The principal role of the PCO is to provide a comprehensive and integrated range of high quality services for—

• the drafting and development of NSW legislation,
• access to NSW legislation.

Drafting legislation includes the drafting of Bills and amendments to Bills, regulations, rules of court and other statutory instruments.

Access to NSW legislation includes the production of Bills, new legislation, the Government Gazette and information publications.

Providing advice and information includes the provision of advice on legislative drafting and procedure, a Legislation Information Service to the Government and the public and a range of legislation information publications.

The PCO also manages the NSW legislation website which is the official NSW Government site for the online publication of legislation, established under Part 6A of the Interpretation Act 1987 .

For more detailed information about the PCO, see What we do.

The Parliamentary Counsel's Office manages NSW legislation , which is the official NSW Government site for the online publication of legislation, including official notification of the making of statutory instruments and of Government Gazettes. It also contains information guides about NSW legislation.

The Parliamentary Counsel's Office does not provide legal advice or research assistance to the public. The Office does not provide—

• Information about how an Act or Regulation operates.
• Information on the meaning of particular provisions of legislation or how they might be applied in particular circumstances (for example, traffic offences or how a local environmental planning instrument applies to your property).
• Information about future plans for legislation.
• Legal research or information for student projects or university assignments.
• More information is available on our Contact page.

The Allocation of the Administration of Acts is approved by the Governor and published on the NSW legislation website. The Allocation sets out the Ministers who are responsible for particular Acts and for regulations under those Acts.

The Allocation of the Administration of Acts is available on the NSW legislation website. In force Acts also show this information under the heading "Responsible Minister" on the Status information page.

You can also find out this information:

• by contacting the Parliamentary Counsel's Office, via phone at 02 9321 3333 or via email at parliamentary.counsel@pco.nsw.gov.au, or
• by searching the NSW Government Directory .

To find the department or agency that is responsible for an Act or regulation, visit the NSW Government portal or by contacting the Parliamentary Counsel's Office, via phone at 02 9321 3333 or via email at parliamentary.counsel@pco.nsw.gov.au.

For reasons of confidentiality, the PCO is not able to advise you whether or not a particular Bill or a Bill on a particular subject is being drafted.

For information about a specific Bill, contact the relevant Government agency that is responsible for the Bill. If you do not know the agency responsible, the PCO's Legislation Information Service may be able to assist, via phone at 02 9321 3333 or via email at parliamentary.counsel@pco.nsw.gov.au.

To find out whether a Bill has been introduced into Parliament, you can—

• check the Bills section on the NSW legislation website or on the NSW Parliament House website ,
• monitor the notification of legislative events on the Notification-Gazette page of the NSW legislation website. The notices provide the mechanism for the official notification of statutory instruments, Government Gazettes and other events. An RSS feed is available which gives subscribers updates to that page,
• contact the Parliamentary Counsel's Office via phone at 02 9321 3333 or via email at parliamentary.counsel@pco.nsw.gov.au.

For confidentiality reasons, the PCO is not able to advise you whether or not a particular regulation or a regulation on a particular subject is being drafted. For information about proposed regulations, contact the relevant Government agency that is responsible for the Act under which the regulation would be made.

Vacancies at PCO that are open to members of the public are advertised online at I Work for NSW .

Suitably qualified applicants who have a disability are encouraged to apply and should contact PCO if they require personal accommodation.

The Parliamentary Counsel's Office does not provide or sell printed copies of legislation or the Government Gazette.

However, if you would like to obtain printed legislation (either the current in force version or as originally made) there are several options available—

1. You can print out the legislation you require free of charge from the NSW legislation website —
1. As Made titles and the Government Gazette are made in PDF and can be printed in that format,
2. In Force titles can be printed as HTML or by generating a PDF version from the icon on the dark blue task bar.
2. You can download a PDF of the legislation onto your computer and then either save it onto a USB drive and take it to any print shop or email it to them and they will print it for you. You may also go to your local library to access the legislation website and print out the copies you require.

Learn more about obtaining printed legislation