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 British Parliamentary Papers for an overview of the York University Libraries’ collections in this area.

This guide is divided into the following sections:

1. Introduction
2. Citations
3. Indexes

I. Introduction

There are two sets of Sessional Papers, one for the House of Lords and one for the House of Commons. Within each of these sets, there are separate numbered series of Bills and House Papers. Command Papers are presented to both Houses and are therefore common to both sets. At the end of each session of Parliament, the Bills, House Papers and Command Papers are bound together and paginated.

Bills: Proposed laws submitted to Parliament for approval. These can be of two kinds: public and private. Only public bills are available in the Sessional Papers.

House Papers: Papers that arise out of the deliberations of the House and its Committees or are needed for its works. This includes Select Committee Papers, Minutes of Proceedings of Standing Committees, Accounts, and certain annual reports.

Command Papers: Command Papers do not originate in the Parliament but are “presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her (or His) Majesty”. Royal Commission Reports and treaties are the most common Command Papers. Command Papers have a specific numbering series. Always record the abbreviation for the series:

Additional Definitions (University of Florida)

II. Citations

To find a Sessional Paper in paper or microtext, you need to know the sessional year, volume, and page number of the item.

Citations are composed as follows:

Session date – Bill, Paper, or Command number – Volume number – page number

Examples:

Bill or Paper: 1884 (181) LXII 395

Command Paper: 1881 [c.2802] XCVIII 367

Bill and Paper numbers appear in (round brackets).

Command Paper numbers have no brackets or [square brackets].

III. Indexes

Indexes covering different time periods can be used to identify Sessional Papers. Not everything listed in these indexes will be available through the York University Libraries (see British Parliamentary Papers). Breviates are also known as select lists because they contain only the major papers and reports of the period.

When you identify relevant documents, always record the following information: sessional year, volume, and page number.

1801-1995: BOPCRIS: British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service: Ford Selections of British Parliamentary Papers 1801 – 1995. This is a finding aid to British Official Publications using a bibliographic database, detailed abstracting and indexing

1696-1834: Hansard’s Catalogue and Breviate of Parliamentary Papers 1696-1834 (GB2 P23.4 H26, SC-GOV-REF).

The following two indexes overlap in their coverage. Both should be consulted because they index different sources within the Sessional Papers.

1715-1801: General Index to the Reports from Committees of the House of Commons 1715-1801 (Printed but not inserted in the Journals of the House) (J 301 K714 1973, SC-GOV-REF). Indexes papers found in the First Series. The First Series is available on microfilm (GB2 P23.4 CO562, SCOTT-MICR).

1715-1800: House of Commons Sessional Papers of the Eighteenth Century (2 volumes, edited by Sheila Lambert), (J 301 K72 1975, SC-GOV-REF).

House of Commons Sessional Papers of the Eighteenth Century are arranged by sessional year, followed by type of paper (b for bills, r for reports, or a for accounts). Vol. II contains a subject index which provides the last 2 digits of the year the paper was issued and an identifying number to locate the full citation in volumes I and II. When using this index, always note the location code (e.g. A indicates the Abbott Collection, CJ Commons Journal, LJ Lords Journal, etc.). A full list of abbreviations used in this index is found on p. vi of each volume.

1660-present: The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers includes House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1660.

1801-1899: Irish University Press Series of British Parliamentary Papers.This set is comprised of:

1. 1696-1834. Hansard’s catalogue

2. 1801-1852. Reports of select committees

3. 1801-1852. Accounts and papers

4. 1852-1869. Bills, reports, estimates, accounts, and papers

5. 1801-1852. Bills, printed by order of the House of Commons

6. 1870-1879. Bills, reports, estimates, accounts, and papers

7. 1880-1889. Bills, reports, estimates, accounts, and papers

8. 1890-1899. Bills, reports, estimates, accounts, and papers

There are also indexes to documents on colonial Canada ( 1857) and East India (1800-1907).

The Irish University Press (IUP) Indexes are divided by time period and type of Sessional Paper. Each volume is arranged by broad subject groupings, with the index entry giving the title and citation.

For example, the 1880-89 volume has the subject heading Education which is subdivided into the following sections:

I) Bills

II) Reports of Select Committees

III) Reports of Commissioners

IV) Accounts and Papers

The IUP Indexes are found in the index section of Scott Government Reference (J 301, SCOTT-GOV-REF).

1900-1916: A Breviate of Parliamentary Papers, 1900-1916: The Foundation of the Welfare State (P. Ford and G. Ford), (JN 549 F59, SC-GOV-REF).

1917-1939: A Breviate of Parliamentary Papers, 1917-1939 (P. Ford and G. Ford), (J 301 M324, SCOTT-GOV-REF).

1940-1954: A Breviate of Parliamentary Papers, 1940-1954: War and Reconstruction ( P. Ford), (J 301 M325, SCOTT-GOV-REF).

1900-1949: General Index to Parliamentary Papers. (GB2 P23.4 G46 1900-49, SCOTT-GOV-REF).

1950-1969: General Alphabetical Index to the Bills, Reports and Papers: Printed by Order of the House of Commons and to the Reports and Papers. Each volume is arranged by subject, date, and document type. (GB2 P23.4 G46, SCOTT-GOV-REF).

1945-present: Use the Catalogue of Government Publications, an annual catalogue published by The Stationery Office. (GB1 ST2.4 G69, SCOTT-GOV-REF).

created by Mike McCaffrey

last updated/revised July 10, 2009 by Amanda Wakaruk