British House of Commons Papers at Memorial Library
Table of Contents
|
|
- 18th Century House of Commons Papers
- 19th Century House of Commons Papers
|
|
Papers vs. Command papers (& Why You Should Care)
The House of Commons produces two kind of Papers: House of Commons Papers and Command Papers. Command Papers are numbered in a slightly different way from other House of Commons Papers. Without knowing the different kinds of papers and their different numbering systems, it may be hard to locate the document you're looking for.
House of Commons Papers: Produced by House of Commons as reports of its own select committees, reports specifically requested, or reports required by statutes. Includes bills.
Command Papers: Reports presented to Parliament by Royal Warrant/command of sovereign (in actuality, by command of a Secretary of State or other minister). Not requested or required by Parliament. Command papers are included in the sessional papers, but have slightly different numbering and notation systems.
Numbering/notation for Command papers
| Years |
Numbering/notation |
Notes |
| 1833-1868/69 |
[1] to [4222] |
Number not printed on the paper. |
| 1870-1899 |
[C.1] to [C.9550] |
From 1870 on, number printed on paper. |
| 1900-1918 |
[Cd.1] to [Cd.9239] |
|
| 1919-1955/56 |
[Cmd.1] to Cmd.9889 |
|
| 1956/57-Nov. 7, 1986 |
Cmnd.1-9927 |
|
| Nov. 2, 1986-present |
Cm 1- |
|
Order of Commons Sessional Papers
Each session of Parliament usually lasts one year. A single session of Parliament may have up to 50 volumes of papers; these volumes make up a sessional set. The order of papers within a sessional set is as follows:
- Until and including the 1968-69 sesssion
- Public bills, arranged alphabetically by title.
- Reports from committees, arranged alphabetically by subject or by name of committee.
- Reports from commissioners, inspectors, others, arranged alphabetically by subject.
- Accounts and papers (all papers that don't fall under other headings), arranged in the following order: Finance, Security and Defence depts, Civil Estimates, trade and navigation accounts, state papers.
- From the 1969-70 session to the 1978-79 session
- Public bills, arranged alphabetically by title, but with Standing Committee minutes of proceedings and Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills reports immediately following the bills to which they refer.
- Reports, accounts, and papers, arranged alphabetically by subject.
- From the 1979-80 session to the present
- Public bills, arranged in numerical order.
- House of Commons papers, arranged in numerical order.
- Command papers, arranged in numerical order.
Page Numbering
- Volumes of Parliamentary papers are made up of individual documents bound together. Each individual document has its own page numbering.
- Generally, the bound volumes do not have continuous page numbering for the volume as a whole (i.e. page numbering starts over with each separate document).
- Page numbers listed in indexes and each volume's table of contents will not be printed on the documents themselves. These page numbers, however, will give you a general idea of where a document is in a volume.
- The table of contents will also tell you where a document is relative to other documents in the volume (i.e. which documents come before and after the one you're looking for).
18th Century House of Commons Papers
Parliamentary papers were not typically printed before 1801. Those that were printed were included in the House of Commons Journals, either in the body of the journal or in an appendix. There are several places at Memorial Library to search for 18th-century papers, listed below.
Electronic 18th-century papers
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO). Gale Group/InfoTrac.
- Licensed online database; available to patrons in campus libraries; and to UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff.
- Covers the years 1700-1800.
- Includes searchable full-text and images of significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom and in the British colonies during the eighteenth century. Currently includes over 150,000 items.
- Includes some Parliamentary papers from the 18th century, but is not comprehensive.
- Catalog records for individual titles in ECCO are included in MadCat.
Print & microform 18th-century papers
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons (Sessional Papers). House of Commons Sessional Papers of the Eighteenth Century. Edited by Sheila Lambert. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1975.
- Includes introduction and list, 1715-1760, and list, 1761-1800.
- Covers the years 1715-1800.
- Most complete of all collections of 18th-century Sessional Papers.
- Indexing: Volumes 1 and 2 of this set have lists of the papers included in this set and are essentially indexes to the set.
- Location: Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisle 38, J301 K625 1975
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. The Journals of the House of Commons. 1547- . London: H.M.S.O., 1742- .
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Reports From Committees of the House of Commons Which Have Been Printed by Order of the House and Are Not Inserted in the Journals [1715-1801]. London, 1803. 16 vols.
- Also known as: "First Series."
- Indexing: Volume [16] is a general index to the first 15 volumes.
- Location: Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisle 38, J301 K4
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Sessional Papers [micro-opaque]. New York : Readex Microprint, 1960- .
- Covers years 1721-1860 and 1880-1900.
- Memorial Library has a reader for micro-opaque cards, and a machine from which you can scan and print from micro-opaque cards, in Room 443 of Memorial Library.
- Location: Microforms/Media Center, Room 443, Micro Print 13.
Indexes for 18th-Century Commons Papers
Electronic index to 18th-century papers
- BOPCRIS: the British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service.
- URL: http://www.bopcris.ac.uk/
- Indexes Parliamentary publications from 1688 to 1995.
- Use the "Search" or "Browse" buttons in the upper left corner of the screen to enter the index.
- Can search all fields in the bibliographic record, or can search by:
- Corporate author
- Title
- Session/date published
|
- Series
- Publisher
- Paper/bill number
|
- BOPCRIS/Library of Congress keywords
- Abstract (where available)
|
- Can browse by date and then subject (recommended), or by subject and then date.
- UW-Madison does NOT have access to BOPCRIS's full-text British Parliamentary documents from 1688-1834. "Access to this site is only available to the HE and FE academic community within the UK and other selected institutions." (From http://www.bopcris.ac.uk/18c/nonacademic.html) Clicking on the button "Parliamentary publications 1688-1834" will NOT lead you to full text.
Print indexes to 18th-century papers
- Ford, Grace. A Select List of Reports and Other Papers in the Journals of the House of Commons 1688-1800. Nendeln, Lichtenstein: KTO Press, 1976.
- Indexes the House of Commons Journals only.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, call number J301 M3 1976
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Catalogue of Parliamentary Reports, and a Breviate of Their Contents: Arranged Under Heads According to the Subjects, 1696-1834. [London: The House, 1836.]
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Hansard's Catalogue and Breviate of Parliamentary Papers, 1696-1834. Reprinted in facsimile, with an introduction by P. Ford and G. Ford. Oxford: Blackwell, 1953.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons (Sessional Papers). House of Commons Sessional Papers of the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 1 and 2. Edited by Sheila Lambert. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1975.
- Indexes Lambert's set. These first two volumes of Lambert's set have lists of the papers included in the set.
- Additional copies of Volumes 1 and 2 are also shelved with the rest of Lambert's set, in the Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisle 38, J301 K625 1975
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, J301 K625 1975
19th-Century Commons Papers
Electronic 19th-century papers
- House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. ProQuest (Chadwyck-Healey).
- Licensed online database; available to patrons in campus libraries; and to UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff.
- Includes full-text of the papers issued by the House of Commons between 1801 and 1900.
- Includes full bibliographic records for all papers; subject terms are from Peter Cockton's Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900
- Can search by:
- Keyword, in:
- entire database
- full [bibliographic] record, or
- full text only
|
- Paper title
- Subject
- Chair/Author
|
|
- Can limit searches by:
|
|
- Documents containing:
- Maps/plans
- Tables/graphs
- Illustrations/photographs
|
- Documents are available in PDF and TIFF formats.
- EPPI: Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers on Ireland, 1801-1922. Southampton: University of Southampton.
Print & microform 19th-century papers
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers [microform]. Cambridge, England: Chadwyck-Healey, 1980-1982.
- Also known as "Chadwyck-Healey microfiche set."
- Covers the years 1801-1849.
- Indexed by:
- Can use most other indexes with this set.
- Location: Microforms/Media Center, Room 443, Micro Fiche 5215.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Sessional Papers [micro-opaque]. New York : Readex Microprint, 1960- .
- Covers years 1721-1860 and 1880-1900.
- Memorial Library has a reader for micro-opaque cards, and a machine from which you can scan and print from micro-opaque cards, in Room 443 of Memorial Library.
- Location: Microforms/Media Center, Room 443, Micro Print 13.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Sessional Papers. [London: H.M. Stationery Office.]
- Also known as "HMSO Sessional Papers."
- Covers: 1860-present.
- Location: Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisles 8-20
Indexes for 19th-Century Commons Papers
The Parliamentary papers are indexed by a number of different publications. The indexes vary in arrangement and what they cover (which dates, which kinds of papers). The indexes fall into several general categories, listed below. Within each category, the indexes are listed chronologically, by the year for which the index first provides coverage.
Electronic indexes for 19th-century papers
- House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. ProQuest (Chadwyck-Healey).
- BOPCRIS: the British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service.
- Index to the House of Commons parliamentary papers on CD-ROM [computer file]. [Cambridge, England]: Chadwyck-Healey, 1995-1997.
- Location: Memorial Reference stand-alone CD-ROM station, Room 262D.
- Covers: 1801-1997.
- The index is on CD-ROM, not the papers!
- User manual stored with disk.
Commercial print indexes for 19th-century papers
- Cockton, Peter, comp. Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900. Cambridge, England; Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healy, 1988- . 5 vols.
- Irish University Press. Checklist of British parliamentary papers in the Irish University Press 1000-volume series, 1801-1899. Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1972.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, Z2019 I73
- Index to the Irish University Press series of British parliamentary papers.
- Gives volume and session number references to HMSO's Sessional Papers, so it can be used with HMSO's Sessional Papers and the Chadwyck-Healey microfiche set.
- Coverage in the Irish University Press series is selective; so index is not comprehensive.
- Ford, P. [Percy], and G. Ford. Select list of British parliamentary papers, 1833-1899. Oxford: Blackwell, 1953.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, J301 M3 1953
Print indexes, published by HMSO (British government printer), to 19th-century papers
HMSO indexes, to 19th-century papers, that cover 10 or more years
These are all located in the Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisle 0.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. General index to the bills, reports, accounts, and other papers, printed by order of the House of Commons: 1801-1832. London: H.M.S.O., 1834.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. General index to the bills, printed by order of the House of Commons, 1801-1852. London: HMSO, 1854.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. General index to the reports of selected committees, printed by order of the House of Commons, 1801-1852. London: HMSO, 1854. Reprint, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microforms, 1965.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. General index to the accounts and papers, reports of commissioners, estimates, printed by order of the House of Commons, or presented by command, 1801-1852. London: HMSO, 1854. Reprint, London: HMSO, 1938.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. General alphabetical index to the bills, reports, estimates, accounts, and papers, reports of commissioners, estimates, printed by order of the House of Commons, and to the papers presented by command, 1852-1899. London: HMSO, 1909. Reprint, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microforms, 1963.
- Memorial has Volume 2 only.
HMSO decennial indexes to 19th-century papers
- Location: Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisle 0
- Cover individual decades.
- Arranged alphabetically by subject.
- Titles vary slightly from decade to decade, but the basic title is: General index to the bills, reports, accounts, and other papers, printed by order of the House of Commons or presented by command.
- Published by the House of Commons.
- Memorial has the volumes that cover the following decades:
|
1852/3-1861 |
1880-89 |
1890-99 |
HMSO sessional indexes to 19th-century papers
For each session of Parliament, H.M.S.O. has published a volume indexing the papers of that individual session.
- Location: Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisle 0
- Memorial's set begins with an index for the 1860 session.
- Through the 19th century, each index consisted of four main parts:
- Numerical lists of Bills
- House of Commons Papers
- Command papers
- Alphabetical subject index to the whole
Specialized index to 19th century papers(for papers containing certain kinds of information)
Index to Diplomatic Blue Books
- Temperley, Harold William Vazeille, and Lillian M. Penson. A century of diplomatic blue books, 1814-1914. London: Cass, 1966.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, Z2009 T28 1966
- Lists papers relating to British foreign affairs appearing in the House of Commons Sessional Papers, House of Commons Journals, and House of Lords Sessional Papers.
- Arranged chronologically with indexes by subject and country.
20th- and 21st-Century Commons Papers
Print 20th and 21st papers (most comprehensive)
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Sessional Papers. [London: H.M. Stationery Office.]
- Also known as "HMSO Sessional Papers."
- Covers: 1860-present. Recent years may not be bound into volumes yet.
- Location: Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisles 8-20, 23-25
Electronic resources: Papers from the 1990s and later
- United Kingdom Parliament: Publications and Records
- URL: http://www.parliament.uk/publications/index.cfm
- Contains selected House of Commons papers, some going back to the 1997/98 session, including:
- Bills (from the current session only)
- Select Committee publications (limited number available)
- Command papers (limited number available)
- Other papers (limited number available)
- No single site lists all the Papers available on the Web; have to look by kind of Paper, then issuing body.
- Bills before Parliament
- URL: http://www.parliament.uk/bills/bills.cfm
- Page has links to:
- Public Bills
- Private Bills
- Draft Bills
|
- Hybrid Bills
- Progress of Bills (details of all stages of this session's bills plus debates)
- Acts of Parliament (going back to 1988)
|
- Public Bills Before Parliament site has full text of public bills currently before either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Bills before the House of Commons are marked with a green square.
- Can track the progress of a bill of a bill at the Bill Index at http://bills.ais.co.uk/AC.asp
- Can search the full text of bills using the "Advanced Search [Houses of Parliament]" page. Select "Bills" (under "Bills and Legislation") in the "Document Type" box to limit your search to bills.
- Select Committee/Joint Committee publications
- URL: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmselect.htm
- The list of Joint Committees follows the list of House of Commons Committees.
- Each list organized alphabetically by name of committee. Then organized by kind of document (memoranda, oral evidence, reports, etc) and date.
- Paper number ("HC ___") listed in the third column of each page.
- Papers for some committees available back to the 1997-98 session. Links to papers from previous sessions at the left bottom corner of each page of current session papers.
- Publications from Select and Joint Committees that existed in 1997-98 but no longer exist are available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/formerct.htm.
- Other House of Commons papers
- Official Documents
- URL: http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/
- Published by TSO (The Stationery Office), http://www.tso.co.uk/about/
- Selected Command Papers, including Green and White Papers
- URL for command papers 2005- : http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/
- Includes all command papers from May 17, 2005, to present. Before that, includes selected papers only.
- On the "Browse Documents" page, there are links to different sessions. On each sessional page, papers are listed by date released, starting with most recent and going backwards.
- You can search for papers by keyword, title, department, or paper number at the "Advanced Search" page. You can also restrict your search by type of paper.
- URL for command papers 1994-2005: http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/
- First have to select an archive to view:
- Official Documents Archives 1: 1994-2001
- Official Documents Archives 2: 2002-April 2005
- You can view lists of papers organized by date, title, or department by clicking on the appropriate tab.
- You can search for papers by keyword, title, department, or paper number at the "Advanced Search" pages for each archive. You can also restrict your search by type of paper.
Other House of Commons publications on the Web
The full text of other selected House of Commons publications, including House of Commons debates (Hansards), House Business ("Vote Bundle"), and the Weekly Information Bulletin, can be found on the Web at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmpubns.htm
Papers relating to Ireland, 1801-1922
- EPPI: Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers on Ireland, 1801-1922. Southampton: University of Southampton.
Indexes to 20th- and 21st-Century Commons Papers
Electronic indexes to 20th- and 21st-century papers
- BOPCRIS: the British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service.
- Index to the House of Commons parliamentary papers on CD-ROM [computer file]. [Cambridge, England]: Chadwyck-Healey, 1995-1997.
Print indexes
Commercial print indexes to 20th and 21st century papers
- Ford, P. [Percy], and G. Ford. A breviate of parliamentary papers, 1900-1916: the foundation of the welfare state. Oxford: Blackwell, 1957.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, JN549 F59
- Also at: Law Library Reference Collection, Grand Reading Room, Ref JN549 F59
- ______. A breviate of parliamentary papers, 1917-1939. Oxford: Blackwell, 1951.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, JN549 F6
- ______. A breviate of parliamentary papers, 1940-1954: war and reconstruction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1961.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, JN549 F612
- Ford, P. [Percy], G. Ford, and Diana Marshallsay. Select list of British parliamentary papers, 1955-1964. Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1970.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, J301 M3 1970
- Marshallsay, Diana, and Peter G. Richards, eds. Ford list of British parliamentary papers 1974-1983: together with specialist commentaries. Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, 1989.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, JN550 1989 F66
Indexes published by HMSO (British government printer)
HMSO index, covering 10 or more years, to 20th- and 21st-century papers
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Library. General index to the bills, reports, and papers, printed by order of the House of Commons, and to the reports and papers presented by command, 1900-1948-49. London: HMSO, 1960.
- Location: Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisle 0
HMSO decennial indexes to 20th- and 21st-century papers
- Location: Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisle 0
- Cover individual decades.
- Arranged alphabetically by subject.
- Titles vary slightly from decade to decade, but the basic title is: General index to the bills, reports, accounts, and other papers, printed by order of the House of Commons or presented by command.
- Published by the House of Commons.
- Memorial has the volumes that cover the following decades:
1900-09
1910-19
1920-1928/9
|
1929-1943/4
1944/5-1948/9
1950-1958/9
|
1959/60-1968/9
1969/70-1978/9
|
HMSO sessional indexes to 20th- and 21st-century papers
For each session of Parliament, H.M.S.O. has published a volume indexing the papers of that individual session.
- Location: Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisle 0
- Memorial's set begins with an index for the 1860 session.
- Up until the 1978-79 session, each index consisted of four main parts:
- Numerical lists of Bills
- House of Commons Papers
- Command papers
- Alphabetical subject index to the whole
- Beginning with the 1979-80 session, the indexes consist only of an alphabetical subject index.
Other HMSO index to 20th- and 21st-century papers
- Great Britain. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Government Publications. London: H.M.S.O., Jan. 1936- .
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, Z2009 G822
- Also known as "Consolidated list of government publications."
- Also known as "Catalogue of government publications."
- Covers 1936-present.
- Catalog of British goverment publications, not just Parliamentary papers.
- Provides the most current access to titles in the Sessional Papers, as the official Sessional indexes aren't published till the end of each session.
Specialized indexes (for papers containing certain kinds of information) to 20th- and 21st-century papers
Indexes, covering 20th- and 21st-century papers, to Diplomatic Blue Books
- Temperley, Harold William Vazeille, and Lillian M. Penson. A century of diplomatic blue books, 1814-1914. London: Cass, 1966.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, Z2009 T28 1966
- Lists papers relating to British foreign affairs appearing in the House of Commons Sessional Papers, House of Commons Journals, and House of Lords Sessional Papers.
- Arranged chronologically with indexes by subject and country.
- Vogel, Robert. A breviate of British diplomatic blue books, 1919-1939. Montreal: McGill University Press, 1963.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, call number Z2009 V6
- Lists chronologically all Bills, Papers, and Command Papers on British foreign affairs appearing in the House of Commons Sessional Papers.
- Indexed by country and subject.
Index to serial publications, 1900-1968
- Rodgers, Frank. Serial publications in the British Parliamentary papers, 1900-1968; a bibliography.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, Z2009 R63
- The House of Commons Sessional Papers include a number of annual reports and periodical papers. This guide traces these periodicals.
- In 1922, as part of an effort to save money and time, a number of annual reports and other publications were dropped from the sessional papers.
- Some have not been published since then; others have continued to be published as non-parliamentary publications.
- This guide provides the status of periodical publications between 1900 and 1968--whether they were included in the Parliamentary Papers or another government document--and where to find them.
There is no single standard method of citing the Parliamentary Papers; however, the guide Citing British Parliamentary Publications at http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/govdocs/british/citing.htm lists some resources with guidelines on citing the Papers.
British Parliamentary/Sessional Papers at Memorial Library | British Parliamentary Publications at Memorial Library |
Government Documents at Memorial Library | Memorial Library Home Page |UW-Madison Libraries
Page created 3/00; last updated 4/2/07.
Created and maintained by:
Beth Harper
Government Documents Reference Librarian
276 Memorial Library
728 State St.
Madison, WI 53706
(608)262-9852