British House of Lords Papers at Memorial Library
Table of Contents
What Are the House of Lords Papers?
The House of Lords papers provide the House of Lords with information for its consideration or arise out of its deliberations. They are roughly comparable to U.S. Congressional reports and documents. The Papers include bills, reports, minutes, and evidence taken by committees, and estimates and appropriations. There's a set of House of Lords papers for each session of Parliament.
The House of Lords have been published as a separate series only since 1897. Prior to that year, selected House of Lords papers were included in the House of Commons series. Memorial's collection of the House of Lords papers goes back to 1897.
The House of Lords papers and House of Commons papers are also known collectively as the "Sessional papers." Usually, however, when someone refers to the "Sessional papers," they're referring to the House of Commons papers.
Do the House of Lords Papers and the House of Commons Papers Contain the Same Information?
It is generally thought that the House of Lords papers contain few papers not found in the House of Commons papers. The House of Commons papers are usually the more useful papers, but House of Lords papers can be useful in tracking the progress of a bill. Also, the House of Lords has appointed its own investigative committees, and the reports of and evidence presented to the committees can only be found in the House of Lords papers.
How the Papers are Organized
Arrangement of sessional papers
Each session of Parliament usually lasts one year. A single session of Parliament may have several volumes of papers; these volumes make up a sessional set.
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. The 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).
House of Lords Papers Held by Memorial Library
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Sessional Papers. [London: H.M. Stationery Office.]
- Covers: 1897-present. Some years may not be bound into volumes.
- Indexed by: individual sessional indexes for years 1897-1927; indexes located in Documents Collection, stack level 2M, aisle 0
- Location: Documents collection, stack level 2M, aisle 24-25
Indexes for House of Lords Papers
- Great Britain. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Government Publications. London: H.M.S.O., Jan. 1936- .
- 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.
- Each issue includes a list, by number of House of Lords Papers & Bills recently published.
- 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.
- Location: Memorial Reference stacks, call number Z2009 G822
House of Lords Papers on the World Wide Web
What's available on the Web
- Selected House of Lords papers going back to the 1997/98 session, including:
- Public bills
- Select Committee reports
- Sites maintained by the United Kingdom Parliament's web service.
- No single site lists all the Papers available on the Web; have to look by kind of Paper, then issuing body.
Public bills
Select Committee publications
- URL: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldselect.htm
- Selected papers of the Joint Committees of both Houses are also available from this page.
- Organized alphabetically by name of Select Committee. Then organized by date.
- Paper number ("HL ___") listed after date.
- Selected papers of the Joint Committees of both Houses are also available from this page.
Other House of Lords publications on the Web
The full text of other selected House of Lords publications, including House of Lords debates (Hansards), Minutes and Order Papers, and Standing Orders of the House of Lords relating to Public Business, can be found on the Web at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldpubns.htm
Citing the House of Lords Papers
There is no single standard method of citing the Parliamentary Papers. 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.
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Page created 3/00; last updated 4/6/05.
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Beth Harper
Government Documents Reference Librarian
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