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This page contains details of: Sources of Current Parliamentary Information |
Traditionally British Government publications are considered to fall into two main groups: Parliamentary and non-Parliamentary and this categorisation will serve as a useful structure for this guide. Parliamentary information is dealt with on this page and non-Parliamentary publications are on the non-Parliamentary publications page of this guide.
The links below will allow you to search for specific parliamentary papers or to carry out a keyword search to find papers on a particular topic.
Parliamentary publications are the papers enabling Parliament to conduct its business and those papers resulting from that business. The key source for current and recent Parliamentary information and publications is now parliament.uk website.
The Publications section of this website provides a useful summary of these documents with links leading to further information and advice on online and/or print access. The links are replicated below:
For more information on legislation please see the Library Law Guide, Finding Legal Information and the Law Subject Guide.
House of Commons and House of Lords Sessional Papers have separate numbering sequences, starting at one in every session. Therefore, papers are referred to in the format: 'HC 507 2000-01' or 'HL Paper 17 2004-05'. Numbers are allocated to HC papers by the Journal Office and to HL papers by the Table Office.
Command Papers are each given an individual number prefaced by an abbreviation for the word 'Command'. The first numbered series of Command Papers was introduced in 1833. The current series is the sixth and began with 'Cm 1' in November 1986. The prefix changes with each series. The numbers used for Command Papers run on from one session of Parliament to another, e.g. Cm. 8599 is the Statement of changes in immigration rules which was published in April 2013.
These numbers need to be cited in a bibliography. Advice on the referencing of government and official publications can be found in the Faculty of Social Science Harvard Guide and in the Library Subject Guide on Harvard referencing.
They are also useful when trying to find the full text. See How to find Parliamentary Papers.
