British Parliamentary Papers

The British Parliament is the legislative body of Government in the United Kingdom. It has two chambers: the House of Lords, where members are appointed by past or current governments, and the House of Commons, a democratically elected chamber with elections to it held at least every 5 years. The Parliamentary Papers are the record of Parliamentary deliberations in the form of bills, reports, minutes, committee proceedings, and appropriations.

The Library’s holdings are listed in Roger. Many items are currently housed in off-site storage but are available to request via Roger. Other items may be available at other UC campus libraries and are available for request through Melvyl. This guide provides location information for most items available at UC San Diego or through online databases to which UCSD subscribes.

Many Parliamentary materials are now available online, either for free or in commercial databases. Check these first.

The British Library explains that “history of the reporting of debates in Parliament is long and complex. Parliament guards its privacy fiercely and for a long time it was forbidden to report what was said within the House. Nevertheless from the seventeenth century some debates appeared, compiled in secret and published at considerable risk. Often only the record of a single debate was issued but gradually more extensive reporting occurred.”

For most purposes it is unnecessary to consult these early debates, as William Cobbett included most of them in his Parliamentary history of England…to the Year 1803. In 1811 Cobbett was bought out by T.C. Hansard who reprinted Cobbett’s volumes and continued to report current debates. The debates became known as Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates and the term Hansard has been used for the debates to the present day, although the firm ceased to be connected with the project in 1892.

Before 1909, the publications were often compiled from secondary sources and often compiled by individuals. Some publications covered both Houses; others covered only one House or the other. After 1909, the debates were published by the government, in separate volumes for the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and were give the term “Official Report.”

The Journals are the official record of what was done in Parliament. They outline proceedings (but not the actual words spoken in session) including records of bills read and committed, motions submitted, resolutions and orders made, reports and papers received, lists of members appointed to committees, etc. Since the House of Lords do not refer bills to standing committee as the House of Commons does, the Lords Journals tend to give more information regarding amendments and results of debates.

Sessional Papers are the papers presented to Parliament: bills, reports of committees, papers presented by Royal Commissions and government departments, and “accounts and papers,” which include treaties, international agreements, and statistics.

Command papers are a distinct category of the Sessional Papers that include important documents on government policy (“white papers”), reports of studies or programs, or other reports presented by government departments to Parliament.