The Statute Book is "the surviving body of enacted legislation published by authority" in "a number of publications".^[1]

In England at the end of 1948, the Statute Book printed by authority consisted of the twenty-four volumes of The Statutes: Second Revised Edition and the thirty-three volumes of Public General Acts published annually since 1920, making in all fifty-seven volumes.^[2]

In A First Book of English Law, Owen Hood Phillips said that there is no Statute Book.^[3] John Baker said that "the statute book" was no closer to being a historical entity than "the" register of writs was.^[4]

In autumn 1947, the Statute Law Committee was given terms of reference "to consider the steps necessary to bring the Statute Book up to date by consolidation, revision, and otherwise".^[5]