British Parliament papers
What are Parliamentary papers?
Parliamentary papers include the working papers of Parliament. Details can be found on the UK Parliament website.
The British parliamentary paper set in the National Library of Australia is a major research collection for the history and development of Great Britain and its colonies, including Australia.
House of Commons, House of Lords and Command papers
Whenever the Houses of Commons or Lords requires the submission of a report and orders it to be printed, the resulting document is issued in a numbered series of House of Commons papers or House of Lords papers. They are sometimes prefixed by the initials HC or HL but usually only the paper number is quoted. A new numbering is begun for each parliamentary session.
Command papers are so called because they are presented "by command of Her/His Majesty." Command paper numbering is continuous over several years with prefixes C, Cl, Cd, Cmd, Cmnd or Cm allocated to different time periods. They are bound in with the House of Commons papers up to session 1976-1977. To retrieve a command paper before that date, the session and volume number need to be quoted. See the UK Parliament website for more information.
What the National Library holds
| Publication | Time Period | Access links |
|---|---|---|
| House of Commons sessional papers of the eighteenth century 1715-1800 | 1715-1800 Many papers for this period are also included in the Journals of the House of Commons and Journals of the House of Lords. See Parliamentary Business | Individual papers in this series may be located through the chronological and alphabetical indexes in volumes 1 and 2. |
| Reports from Committees of the House of Commons | 1715-1802 | Visit our eResources portal and search for the resource U.K. Parliamentary Papers under the Browse eResources tab. |
| Reports from Committees of the House of Commons which have been printed by order of the House and are NOT inserted in the journals | 1803-1806 | Microfilm |
| House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (HCPP Online) | 1801-1900 | Visit our eResources portal and search for the resource U.K. Parliamentary Papers under the Browse eResources tab.
|
| Parliamentary Papers (House of Commons and Command) | 1797-1976/77 Almost complete holdings. | CAC Sq 328.42 GRE |
| Parliamentary papers (House of Commons and Command) | 1731-1800/10 | Microprint |
| House of Commons papers | 1977/78-2012/13 | CAC Sq 328.42 GRE |
| Command papers | 1978-2012 | CAC Sq 328.42 GRE |
| Command Papers can be accessed at GOV.UK | From 1993 to present (earlier dates imperfect) | Online |
| Publication | Time Period | Access links |
|---|---|---|
| House of Lords sessional papers | 1714-1805 | CAC Sq 328.42 GRE |
| House of Lords sessional papers - Microfilm | 1806-1859 | mfm 901 |
| Sessional papers of the House of Lords | 1806/07-1984/85 Holdings imperfect | CAC Sq 328.42 GRE |
| Papers | 1985/86-2012/13 | CAC Sq 328.42 GRE |
Parliamentary papers may be identified and located through the following indexes.
| Publication | Time Period | Access links |
|---|---|---|
Hansard's catalogue and breviate of Parliamentary papers 1696 to 1834 Lists and summarises the content of a select list of House of Commons papers and journals. | 1696-1834 | RF 328.4204 G786 |
| General index to the accounts and papers, reports of commissioners, estimates, &c.&c... | 1801-1852 | CAC Sq328.42 GRE |
| Subject catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary papers, 1801-1900 | 1801-1900 | RFq 328.42 GRE |
| Index to the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers | 1801 - 2004 | Visit our eResources portal and search for the resource U.K. Parliamentary Papers under the Browse eResources tab. |
| General alphabetical index to the bills, reports, estimates and papers... | 1852-1899 | 328.42 GRE |
| General index to the bills, reports and papers printed... 1900 to 1948-49 | 1900-1948/49 | RF 328.42 G786 |
| General alphabetical index to the bills, reports and papers printed...1969-70 to 1978-79 | 1969/70-1978/79 | Sq 328.42 GRE |
| Numerical finding list of British command papers published 1833-1961/62 | 1833-1962 | RF 328.4201 D559 |
| British command papers: a numerical finding list 1962/63-1976/77 | 1962-1977 | YY 015.41 M119 |
Committee reports
You may need to identify a committee report using the name of the committee chairman. The following items can help:
- British government publications : an index to chairmen of committees and commissions of inquiry. Four volumes. Located in the Main Reading Room reference collection at RF 328.42 R513
- House of Commons Parliamentary Papers in eResources (1801-1996). Search by Chair/author. A list of these is also available.
Related eResources
You can access these resources by visiting our eResources portal and searching for each one under the Browse eResources tab.
- House of Commons Parliamentary Papers includes over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688 (subscription; Library log in required).
- Publications from gov.uk, the official source for Command and departmentally sponsored House of Commons Papers (free online).
Fast fact
The Treasury needed to save money after the First World War, and one means was to prescribe an octavo size for Command Papers instead of the larger foolscap size.
Some material (e.g. many statistical documents) became non-parliamentary for this reason.
In 1922, only 229 Command Papers were presented, compared to 718 in 1908. The royal octavo size was standard until the late 1980s. See Command Papers, Fact Sheet 13.
In this guide
C. E Wagstaff & George Baxter, (1841), The arrival of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria at the House of Lords to open the first Parliament of her reign, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136108572
