WISER: Social SciencesGovernment Publications

An introduction to Parliamentary and non-Parliamentary publications. Both print and electronic sources of information will be examined.

Hannah Chandler & Angela Carritt

Overview

• What is an official paper?• Parliamentary papers• Parliamentary proceedings• Acts and Statutory Instruments• Non Parliamentary Papers• Where to find printed collections

What are Official Papers?

• Put simply ‘an official publication is any item issued by an organisation that is an official body and available to an audience wider than that body’.

• 5 types of organisations recognised

1. Legislatures2. Central government departments3. Courts and other judicial bodies4. Any organisation set up by and maintaining links with an

official body5. Organisations whose members belong to one of the above

to include international intergovernmental orgs.

Exist on three levels

• International - international intergovernmental bodies, such as the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation

• National – individual state (or country) or federation of states, Westminster Parliament, Scottish Parliament

• Subnational - a province, state or region, South East England Development Agency

Parliamentary Papers

• There are five main classes of Parliamentary Papers which date from 1801 to the present day. Organised by session, they usually run from November to November.

• House of Commons Papers (also known as sessional papers)

• House of Commons Bills • Command Papers (main types: treaties, white papers

which are govt. proposals for legislation, reports of Royal Commissions, govt replies to select committees and annual reports)

• House of Lords Papers• House of Lords Bills

Sessional Information Digest

• Dates of parliamentary sessions• Complete list of bills and Acts before Parliament, their

stages and who sponsored it.• Lists local and general Acts receiving royal assent• Lists committees and subject list to white papers,

green papers and consultation documents• From 1995/1996-• http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/

cmsid.htm

Bills

• Public Bills – Promoted by Government• Private Bill

– Not an official paper. Printed by the Petitioner not Parliament.

– Promoted by organisations (local authorities, private companies) outside the House to obtain power in conflict with or in excess of the Law.

– Presented to Parliament on or before 27th Nov. each year.• Private Members’ Bill

– Bills initiated by Private Members’ backbenchers rather than Government.

– Several ways of introducing Bills.– Ballots, Ten Minute Rule Bill, Presentation Bills and Bills

brought from the House of Lords. – 2003/2004 session of the 38 Bills receiving Royal Assent, 5

were introduced by backbench members

Looking for Parliamentary Papers

• They are not comprehensively catalogued so very few appear on OLIS. The parliamentary Papers are made up of over 250,000 documents.

• BOPCRIS, 1688-1995 http://www.bopcris.ac.uk/• BOPCAS, 1995- http://www.bopcris.ac.uk/bopcas/• UKOP, 1980- via OxLIP or OP website• House of Commons Parliamentary Papers on CD

Rom available through OxLIP or OP website • UK Parliament http://www.parliament.uk• POLIS 1997- http://www.polis.parliament.uk/• Parlianet 1979- http://www.parlianet.com/

Parliamentary Proceedings

Documentary record of the work of the Houses of Parliament

•Journal of the House of Commons & Journal of the House of Lords

•Hansard

•Standing committee debates

Journal of the House of Commons & House of Lords

• Daily record of the “proceedings” of the Commons and Lords• Record “what happened” (decisions and actions) rather than “what was

said” (debates)– Voting records– Progress of bills – Papers – Lists of members appointed to committees– Daily record of members present

• Printed volumes available in Official Papers• Current journals are not available online• Some volumes from the 16th, 17th, 19th centuries available online at

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/• Jisc project to digitise 18th C official papers – July 2006

>http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=digitisation_home• Indexes

– Annual index to Journals of the House of Commons– Earlier volumes of the Journals are indexed in Hansard's Catalogue of

Parliamentary Reports...1696-1834

Parliamentary Debates - Hansard

• Verbatim record of proceedings of both houses 1808- • Published daily • Includes debates, written/oral questions, records of

votes• Since 1909 separate series for Commons and Lords• Hard copy

– Full set in the Law Library @ CW UK – Full set up to 1990 Upper Camera

• Parliament web site (http://www.parliament.uk) – Commons 1988/89- Lords 1994/95-– Split into daily, weekly, sessional volumes and indexes in the

same way as the hard copy– Can be searched using “Advanced Search”

Searching Hansard

• Search the annual sessional indexes – Print (shelved at the end of the sessional volumes)– Electronic (sessional index NOT available. Indexes to

individual volumes under “Hansard” on the parliament web site)

• Use “Advanced Search” on the parliament web site• Search Parlianet (http://www.parlianet.com/)

– Indexes Hansard 1997-– Requires an Athens ID

• Search Polis (http://www.polis.parliament.uk/)– Indexes Hansard 1997-

• For recent items use the Weekly Information Bulletin – Law Library CW UK 300 H36 – Online - “Parliamentary Publications and Archives” on the

Parliament web site

e.g. a page from the Sessional Index

Abbreviations Wh – debates in

Westminster hall W – written questions

(found at the back of the volume or issue)

Relating to bills 1R - first reading 2R - second reading COM – committee

stage Rep – report stage 3R – third reading Res – resolution Amendt(s) -

amendments * matter taken formally

without debate or division

Daily issues

Sessional volumes

Indexes to bound volume but does not include sessional index

Choose Commons or Lords

Sample search on “Parlianet”

Parlianet indexes• Parliamentary publications • Parliamentary proceedings

(including Hansard)• Deposited papers (including

many consultation papers)• Library research papers• Press notices and circulars• 1979-• Parliamentary questions

1997-• Full bibliographic information• Links to full text when

available (but often not working)

Sample search on “Parlianet”

Standing committees

• After the second reading of a bill it is usually considered in detail by a standing committee (the “committee stage”)

• Debates the bill clause by clause• Up to 10 standing committee each session (A-H + 2

for Scotland)• More information at

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/l06.pdf

Standing Committees Debates

• Print - Official Reports of Standing Committees – Law Library CW UK 5

– 1944-

– Organised by session and within each session by committee (A-H) and then by date

– To find out which committee is discussing a particular bill use Weekly Information Bulletin / Sessional Information Digest

• Parliament web site has full text of the debates– 1997/98-

– Includes list of members

– Committees > Standing Committees > Standing Committee Debates on Bills > Choose session and then appropriate bill

• UKOP indexes standing committee debates (put standing committee in the “issuing body” field)

Legislation: Acts

• Acts a.k.a Public General Acts or Statutes– Once a bill has received the royal assent it is an Act– Apply to the whole population or a substantial part of it– Do not necessarily come into force immediately – Regularly amended and repealed

• Local and personal Acts– Only affect a particular area, body or group of individuals

• How to distinguish Public General, Local & Personal Acts– Public and General - chapter number in arabic numerals

(e.g. Theft Act 1978 1978 c. 31)

– Local - chapter number in roman numerals (e.g. Ipswitch Market Act 2006 c. iii)

– Personal Acts – chapter number in arabic number but in italics

Legislation: Statutory Instruments

• a.k.a secondary or delegated legislation, SIs• Do not go before parliament (but are sometimes

considered in Standing Committees)• Usually made by a government minister under the

authority of an act (enabling legislation)• SIs

– fill in the details in legislation– often rules, regulations – commencement orders– Implementation of EU legislation

Public General Acts in print

• Current Law Statutes Annotated– Text of the statute as enacted – Does not include any information about repeals or

amendments– Detailed background notes and explanations

• Halsbury’s Statutes– Text of the statute as it currently stands

(i.e. including all repeals and amendments)– Updated by “Cumulative Supplement” and loose leaf “Noter

up” to ensure currency– Footnotes include definitions, notes re amending legislation,

cases discussing the legislation

• Halsbury’s “Is it in force?”– In force information for statues passed in the last 25 years

Local and Personal Acts in Print

• Large collection in the Law Library CW UK 11• Index to Local and Personal Acts 1801-1947• Index to the Local and Personal Acts 1850-1995 CW

UK 80 I38c• Chronological Table of Local Legislation 1797-1997

Statutory Instruments in print

• Statutory Instruments (published by HMSO/OPSI)– CW UK 90 S797.2– Full text of all Sis as enacted

(i.e. without repeals and amendments)

• Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments – CW UK 90 S 797 4c– Up to date information on every SI of “general application” in

England and Wales– Includes amendments and repeals– Full text of some Sis, summary of others– Kept up to date by “Cumulative Supplement” and “Noter up”

Acts and SIs online

• Justis (follow links from Oxlip)– Full text of all statues and SIs as enacted

(i.e. without amendments and repeals)– Requires an Athens ID

• Lexis Nexis Butterworths and Westlaw (follow links from Oxlip)– Text of all statutes as they currently stand

(i.e. including all repeals and amendments)– Notes include definitions, cases discussing the legislation

and commentary– Requires an Athens ID

Legislation online: free resources

• OPSI web site (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation) Full text of:– Public and General Acts 1988- – Local Acts 1991-– Statutory Instruments 1987- – All legislation as enacted (i.e. without amendments and

repeals)

• Bailii (http://www.bailii.org)– Information is drawn from OPSI (coverage the same)

Non parliamentary papers

• Can be published by the Stationery Office, the government departments themselves or the publishing can be contracted out to commercial publishers.

• Web Publishing Issues• URLs not static• Documents can be revised/updated/altered with no

bibliographic reference on the document.• Print and electronic format may appear very different

unless in PDF format• May be little bibliographic information on the

document• Web documents not systematically being deposited

at the legal Deposit Libraries

Paper format

Web version of the Good Friday Agreement

Searching for non parliamentary papers

• Prior to 1980 OLIS (for old records use the aw= tw= search options)

• COPAC http://copac.ac.uk/• OPACs of other libraries• HMSO/TSO annual catalogues• UKOP – from 1980-• BOPCAS• Websites of the government departments themselves

Where to find it in print

Official Papers (Lower Camera)• Full set of parliamentary

papers• Full set of public acts• House of Lords and

Commons Journals• Publications of government

departments c. 1900-• Reprints of parliamentary

papers by subject• House of Commons

sessional papers from the 18th century

Bodleian Law Library• Full set of Hansard• Standing committee debates• Full set of Public Acts and

SIs• Large collection of local and

personal acts

Useful URLs

• Official Papers web site - http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/readerserv/official/

• Bodleian Law Library – http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/law

• Hannah Chandler (hannah.chandler@bodley.ox.ac.uk)

• Angela Carritt (angela.carritt@bodley.ox.ac.uk)