About Guvnor

Why Guvnor exists

There are around 5.5 million private-sector businesses in the UK, and 99.9% of them are small or medium-sized. Most have fewer than 10 employees. When a new regulation lands, it doesn't land on a compliance department — it lands on the desk of the person who is also the managing director, the bookkeeper, and often the one doing the actual work. Large firms have a team to absorb it. You have a smartphone and a Sunday evening.

The official guidance is accurate, but it's written for everyone, which means it works for no one in particular. The rules are scattered across dozens of regulators, each with its own website and its own deadlines. You're left to work out which ones apply to you — and most people end up either paying an adviser to translate it, or waiting for an inspector to tell them what they got wrong. Guvnor exists to close that gap.

What Guvnor does

Tell Guvnor about your business — your sector, your size, where you're based, and your stage — and it shows you what regulations apply, which regulators enforce them, what the deadlines and penalties are, and what you actually need to do. Every obligation links back to the authoritative source, so you can check the original rather than take our word for it.

You don't need an account, and you don't have to hand over your name, email or phone number to use the guidance. If you'd rather just ask a question in plain English, Ask Guv answers from the same underlying data and tells you where the answer came from.

What Guvnor is not

• Not a government service — but built on government data and designed to complement GOV.UK, not replace it.
• Not legal or professional advice — but more structured and specific than anything else available for free. Always check the linked sources before you act.
• Not an accounting tool — but it understands your tax obligations and links you straight to the relevant HMRC guidance.

Built on the actual law, not opinions about it

This is the bit that lets Guvnor be specific where a search engine can't. Underneath everything is a knowledge graph — a structured map of UK business regulation that links each piece of legislation to the duties it creates, the penalties for getting it wrong, the exemptions that might let you off, the regulators who enforce it, and the sectors and business types it applies to. That's why "what applies to a hospitality business with 12 staff in Scotland" gets you a real, traceable answer instead of a generic article. The answers are worked out from the law itself, not from someone's write-up of it.

It has grown into what we believe is the most complete and detailed map of its kind anywhere: more than 5,000 pieces of legislation, broken down into over 40,000 individual provisions, more than 18,000 statutory duties, thousands of penalties and exemptions, and over 130 regulators — all cross-referenced to the sectors and business types they affect. We keep it current as the law changes, not when we get round to it.

That same graph also powers a public legislation registry API. If you're a developer or partner who wants to build on the data, we'd like to hear from you — there's more on the Contact page.

A note on accuracy

Guvnor's content is compiled from official sources and is kept as current as we can, but regulation changes constantly and Guvnor is not a substitute for professional advice on your specific situation. Always check the linked official sources before acting. If you spot something that looks wrong or out of date, tell us — it genuinely helps.