Are essay writing services legal? The law in the UK, Australia, Ireland and the US
Short answer
It depends on where you study. England, Ireland and Australia make it a crime to sell or advertise cheating services to students, and New Zealand has a similar offence. The laws target the business, not the student, but buying a paper still breaks almost every university's rules and can cost you the course.
The short version
An essay writing service sells you work that you then hand in as your own. For most of the last twenty years that was legal almost everywhere, even though handing the work in broke university rules. That has changed in several countries. Since 2019 Ireland, since 2020 Australia and since 2022 England have made it a criminal offence to provide or advertise these services to students, and New Zealand has a similar offence in its education law.
The pattern across these laws is the same. They punish the company that writes or sells the work, and the people who advertise it. They do not, on their own, make the student a criminal. The student is dealt with by the university, under its academic misconduct rules, where the penalties range from a zero for the assignment to losing the degree.
This page explains what each law covers, what it means for you, and why the answer to "is it legal?" is the wrong question to ask before you pay anyone. If you want the history of how this industry grew and how AI tools changed it, read from essay mills to chatbots.
England
The Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022 created two offences that came into force on 28 June 2022. Section 27 makes it an offence to provide, or arrange for someone else to provide, a "relevant service" for a student in commercial circumstances. Section 28 makes it an offence to advertise a relevant service to students. Both are punishable on summary conviction by a fine.
Section 26 defines a relevant service as completing all or part of an assignment on behalf of a student where the result could not reasonably be considered to have been completed personally by the student. It also covers supplying material prepared for the assignment that the student could use to complete it. "Personally" includes any assistance your course permits, so a tutor, a proofreader or a tool your module allows does not turn your work into a relevant service.
Two details matter. First, the law covers students on post-16 courses at institutions in England and people entered for regulated qualifications there, so it reaches sixth forms and colleges as well as universities. Second, section 27(6) says a student does not commit an offence merely by using the service. A company also cannot escape by printing "for reference only" in its terms: section 27(5) says such a statement is not enough on its own to prove the defence.
Australia
The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 was amended in 2020 to add two offences, listed by the regulator TEQSA: providing, offering to provide or arranging for a third party to provide an academic cheating service to a student (section 114A), and advertising academic cheating services to students (section 114B).
The Australian law is aimed at students of higher education providers. As in England, the offences target the people who supply and promote the work, while the student's own conduct is handled by their provider under its academic integrity rules. TEQSA publishes the current wording of both sections and the penalties attached to them.
Ireland
Ireland added section 43A to the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012 through an amending Act in 2019. According to Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), which brings prosecutions under it, section 43A makes it an offence to facilitate a learner to cheat in any way, to advertise cheating services to learners, and to publish advertisements for cheating services to learners.
QQI states that a person convicted under section 43A may receive a fine of up to 100,000 euro, imprisonment for up to five years, or both. That makes Ireland's penalties the heaviest of the countries on this page. QQI also notes that the services caught include paraphrasing services sold to get past plagiarism checks and research proposal writing services.
New Zealand
New Zealand was early. Its offence now sits in section 393 of the Education and Training Act 2020, headed "Offence to provide or advertise cheating services". It turns on providing a specified service with the intention of giving a student an unfair advantage over other students, and on advertising such services. If you study in New Zealand, read the current text of section 393 on the government's legislation site for the full wording and penalty.
The laws side by side
The four laws differ in reach and penalty, but each one targets the business rather than the student. This table sums up what each one covers, as stated in the law or by the regulator that enforces it.
| Country | Law | What it bans | Who enforces it |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, ss. 27 and 28 | Providing, arranging or advertising a service that completes work students must do personally | Criminal courts; fine on summary conviction |
| Ireland | 2012 Act, s. 43A (added 2019) | Facilitating a learner to cheat, and advertising or publishing adverts for cheating services | QQI; up to 100,000 euro and five years |
| Australia | TEQSA Act 2011, ss. 114A and 114B | Providing, offering or arranging academic cheating services, and advertising them | TEQSA |
| New Zealand | Education and Training Act 2020, s. 393 | Providing or advertising cheating services | Courts, under the education Act |
None of the four makes the student who buys the work guilty of the offence. Every one leaves the student's conduct to the institution.
United States
There is no federal law in the United States that makes it a crime to sell essays to students. In practice, the rules that matter for a US student are the honor code and academic integrity policy of the college, which treat submitting purchased work as misconduct whatever state you are in.
The absence of a criminal law is not a green light. A US student caught submitting bought work faces the same kind of academic penalty as a student in London or Melbourne: a failed assignment, a failed course, suspension or expulsion, and a record that can follow an application to graduate school.
What it means for students
None of these laws makes you a criminal for buying an essay. All of them make it harder for the seller to operate, and none of them changes what your university does if it finds out. That is the risk to weigh, and it is larger than most students think, because a bought paper often reads differently from the rest of your work and markers notice. Read how teachers check work to see what they look at.
The laws also give you a useful test for any help you are offered. Ask whether the work could reasonably be called yours. Feedback on a draft you wrote is yours. A friend explaining a statistics method is yours. A finished section written to your brief is not. If you are unsure where your course draws the line, read your university's policy and ask your tutor in writing.
Finally, several of these laws cover advertising, so if a service is still being pushed at you on social media or in your inbox, that tells you something about how it treats the rules. Services that offer "plagiarism-free" or "undetectable" papers are describing the product the law is aimed at.
Where AI tools fit
The English and Australian laws were written for people and companies that produce work for students. A general AI writing tool that you operate yourself is a different thing, and the question of whether it counts as a cheating service is being tested rather than settled. What is settled is the university side: if your course does not allow AI-generated text and you submit it, that is misconduct, just as a bought essay would be. The difference between help and ghostwriting is set out in proofreading, editing or ghostwriting.
More on this in Integrity.
FAQ
Is it illegal to buy an essay?
Not for the student in England, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand. The laws there make it an offence to sell or advertise the service. Submitting a bought essay still breaks your university's rules.
Can I go to prison for using an essay mill?
No law covered on this page imprisons a student for using a service. The prison terms in Ireland apply to people who facilitate cheating or advertise cheating services.
Are essay writing services legal in the UK?
Not in England, where providing or advertising them to students at English institutions has been an offence since 28 June 2022. The Act is about students in England, so check local rules elsewhere in the UK.
Is it legal to sell model essays as examples?
In England the test is whether the material was prepared for a student's assignment or is otherwise unpublished. Material that is published generally, like a textbook, is not a relevant service.
Does proofreading count as a cheating service?
Not if your course permits it. In England, assistance your course allows counts as completing the work personally. Check your institution's proofreading policy.
This guide explains common rules; your institution's policy decides what is allowed on your work.
Sources
- Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, section 26: meaning of relevant servicelegislation.gov.uk
- Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, section 27: offence of providing or arranging a relevant servicelegislation.gov.uk
- Prosecution of contract cheating (section 43A)Quality and Qualifications Ireland
- Offences and civil penalties under the TEQSA ActTertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency
