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Scott Research & Collections > Researching British Parliamentary Papers

Researching British Parliamentary Papers

This guide will help you identify and locate British Parliamentary Papers available at or through the York University Libraries. Some of the online documents are available to the York community through licensed databases, while others are accessible via the free and open WWW. Other parts of these collections are located in the Government Reference Collection (SC-GOV-REF) on the second floor of Scott Library, in the Microtext Department (SC-MICR) on the first floor of the Scott Library, or in storage (HNES-STOR). To make a storage request, search the title in the library catalogue and select the “Request from Storage” button near the bottom of the page. Be sure to enter the year and volume number in the call number field on the request form. Note that all microtext materials can be printed and/or digitized for personal, scholarly use in compliance with copyright legislation.

For further assistance, please speak to a librarian at the Research Questions Desk on the 2nd floor of the Scott Library or contact the Government Information Librarian responsible for foreign and international government collections, Timothy Bristow.

Usage of the phrase ‘parliamentary papers’ varies. Generally speaking, it refers to everything officially published which concerns Parliament. This definition includes the records of proceedings and debates of Parliament as well as the Sessional Papers.

This guide is divided into the following sections:

  1. Records of Proceedings
    1. Parliament Rolls of Medieval England
    2. Journals
    3. Debates
  2. Sessional Papers
    1. Working With Sessional Papers
  3. Other Important Compilations and Resources
  4. Citing British Parliamentary Papers

I. Records of Proceedings

Parliament Rolls of Medieval England

  • 1272-1509: The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (PROME) provides full-text access to the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272-1307) to Henry VII (1485-1509).

The Parliament Rolls were superseded by the Journals of the House of Lords in 1509 and the Journals of the House of Commons in 1547.

Journals

The permanent official record of the decisions and other transactions of the House of Commons from 1547 and the House of Lords from 1509. Prior to 1801, many committee reports were printed in the body of the Journals. From 1801-1834 they were printed as appendices. After 1834, they were printed separately (see Sessional Papers).

House of Lords

  • 1509-1717, 1832-1834: Lords Journal is the official record of proceedings in the House (1509-1717, 1832-4). Available via British History Online.
  • 1640-1900: Journals are available in microcard and must be requested from storage, GB2 P23.4 J69 MCARD. Each volume has an index. There are microcard readers and a scanning workstation (for printing) in Scott Microtext. Note that this series is titled 1547-1900 but the first card in our holdings is 1640.
  • 1966/67-2005/06: Journals of the House of Lords are available in print in the Scott Government Reference Collection, GB2 P26.4 J69.
  • 1998 – present: Minutes of the House of Lords from 3 June 1998 are available via the web site of the United Kingdom Parliament.

House of Commons

  • 1640-1900: Journals are available in microcard and must be requested from storage, GB2 P23.4 J69 MCARD. Each volume has an index. There are microcard readers and a scanning workstation (for printing) in Scott Microtext. Note that this series is titled 1547-1900 but the first card in our holdings is 1640.
  • 1688-1834: Journals are available via House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.
  • 1774/76, 1782-1785, 1966/67-2005/06: Journals of the House of Commons are available in paper in the Scott Government Reference Collection, GB2 P23.4 J69.

Debates

The record of the proceedings in the Houses of Parliament, the Debates are often referred to as Hansard after the British family that published the proceedings of the House of Commons between 1812-1899. The early Debates are simply reports and summaries of the daily speeches; prior to 1771, printing what was said in the house was a punishable offence. See the Story of Hansard for a brief history of this publication. Note that verbatim records were not kept until 1909 and that prior to this, the House of Lords and the House of Commons Debates were published together under one title. In addition, many nineteenth century newspapers published summaries or reports of what was said in the houses of parliament.

The United Kingdom Parliament has created a Chronology of the “Parliamentary Debates” which begins in 1803.

  • 1660-1741: The history and proceedings of the House of Commons of England. With the speeches, debates, and conferences (3 vols.) is available via Eighteenth Century Collections Online; search by title.
  • 1785-1985: The Times (Digital Archive) includes reports and accounts of parliamentary proceedings published in this newspaper; this source is especially useful for material prior to 1909. Note: use the Advanced search feature to limit the search to “politics and parliament” under the broader “news” category.
  • 1803-1908: Cobbett’s Parliamentary Debates. The Debates for these years are available on microcard and can be requested from storage, GB2 P23.5 P27 MCARD.
  • 1803-2005: The Hansard Digitisation Project is a prototype digitised historical Hansard, providing full-text access to the Official Report of debates in Parliament. This site also includes lists of people who are recorded as having spoken, constituencies, offices, acts, bills and divisions.
  • 1803-1830: The 19th Century Masterfile includes Hansard’s Index to the Debates, 1803-1830, which covers both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Enter “Hansard’s” as a search term to restrict your query to this index.
  • 1828-1832: The Mirror of Parliament was a rival publication to Hansard between 1828-1841. Issues from the 8th Parliament, 2nd session, 1828 – 10th Parliament, 2nd session, 1832 can be requested from storage, GB2 P23.5 M57 HNES-STOR.
  • 1833-1908: Parliamentary Debates of the House of Commons and the House of Lords were published together and are available in the Scott Government Reference Collection, GB2 P23.5 P27. Note that the final volume of each series includes an index.
  • 1909-1987/88: Parliamentary Debates for the House of Commons are available in the Scott Government Reference Collection, GB2 P23.5 P27.
  • 1909-1994/95: Parliamentary Debates for the House of Lords are available in the Scott Government Reference Collection, GB2 P26.5 P27.
  • 1988/89-present: The web site of the United Kingdom Parliament provides access to the House of Commons Debates from 1988 – present.
  • 1995/96-present: The web site of the United Kingdom Parliament provides access to the House of Lords Debates from 1995 – present.

II. Sessional Papers

Sessional Papers are the working papers of Parliament and include bills (drafts of legislation), reports (from committees, commissioners, etc.), accounts (including statistical information) and papers (documents conveying information or decisions to the members of Parliament). See Working With Sessional Papers for a more thorough introduction and a list of relevant indexes in paper or microtext format.

  • 1731-1800: A subset of the House of Commons Sessional Papers covering 1731-1800 is available in Scott Microtext on microfiche, GB2 P2.2 SE772. The microfiche are arranged in parts: Bills, Accounts and Papers, and Catalogue of papers.
  • 1731-1968: House of Commons Sessional Papers (titled, British Sessional Papers) are available in microcard, held in storage, GB2 P2.2 B75 MCARD.
  • 1688-2006/07: The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers provides full-text access to House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688.
  • 1969/70- 1975/76; 1992/93; 1996/97; 1998/99 - p resent: House of Commons Sessional Papers are available in Scott Microtext on microfiche, GB2 P23.4 G462, SCOTT-MICR. Use the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers to identify the microfiche number.
  • 1988-present: The web site of the United Kingdom Parliament provides access to Hansard (1988-), Public General Acts (some from 1837-1987, 1988-), Local Acts (1991-), Bills before Parliament, and a selection of other parliamentary publications.
  • 1994-present: The UK Government Publications web page is a service of UK Online; this page links to the full-text of Command and departmentally sponsored House of Commons Papers. Coverage is comprehensive from May 2005 forward and selective from 1994-April 2005.

III. Other Important Compilations and Resources

  • Cobbett’s Parliamentary History of England includes excerpts of the debates and proceedings of the Parliament between 1066-1803. Located in Scott Government Reference, GB2 P23.4 J68 and in part through the 19th Century Masterfile.
  • The Historical Manuscripts Commission, Public Records Office, published reports that included the full-text of private papers covering the period of 958-1889. Their Reports and Calendars Bibliography identifies reports issued as command papers between 1870-1920, which are available full-text via the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers database. In addition, the Scott Library holds many of these reports in paper, located on the 3rd floor at call number GB1 H4.7 G95.
  • Colonial State Papers provides users with access to an important range of British historical material, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The database contains thousands of papers that were presented to the Privy Council and the Board of Trade between 1574-1757, and which relate to England’s governance of, and activities in, the earliest English settlements in North America, encounters with Native Americans, piracy in the Atlantic and Caribbean, the trade in slaves and English conflicts with the Spanish and French.
  • The List & Index Society reproduced series of unprinted lists and indexes housed in the Public Records Office (PRO). These lists include many government documents, some of which can be found in the York University Libraries’ collections noted above. Volumes 1-232 of the Standard List and volumes 1-23 of the Special List can be found in the Scott Government Reference collection, CD 1042. The List & Index Society web page also provides a Combined Index to these collections.

IV. Citing British Parliamentary Papers

British Government Publications, University of York Library and Archives:

http://www.york.ac.uk/services/library/publications/guides/govpubs.htm#citation

created by Mike McCaffrey

last updated/revised July 10, 2009 by Amanda Wakaruk

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