Some Parliamentary Papers and related documents can now be found online through the National Archives or the Parliamentary Archives. 

Parliamentary Papers

About

Parliamentary papers and debates consist of documents produced by and for the Houses of Parliament in the course of their work. Three broad categories of House of Commons papers are:

Journals: the official record of proceedings in the House. The Libraries have Journals of both Commons and Lords dating back to the 16th century. Debates (often referred to as "Hansard" after their first printer): what is said in the House. The Libraries hold Commons debates volumes from 1804/04-1988/9. From 1988/89 forward, the Commons debates are available from the Parliament web site. House of Commons Papers: which consist of Command and other Sessional Papers.

• Command papers are those reports printed by various government departments (such as annual reports or statistics) that the House commands to be printed.
• Sessional papers consist of Command papers, plus the bills, committee reports, returns (reports from various government agencies) and act papers (reports required from councils, boards or other agencies that form the working papers of a particualar Parliamentary session.

The Parliamentary Papers on microcards are in two series:

-1731-1800 is a complete run containing accounts, papers, bills, and reports.

-for the nineteenth century, the Libraries hold only scattered years and Parliaments: 1830-1834, 1842, 1847-1848, 1854-1855, 1867-1868, 1884-1885.

Location

Library Annex (volumes) MP 328.42

Format

microcard - opaque

Arrangement

Cards are arranged in the boxes by Parliamentary session. Within each session, documents are arranged in the following sequence:

-Bills Reports of Committees (Parliamentary)

-Reports of Commissioners (Non-Parliamentary)

-Command papers

-Accounts and Papers: both House of Commons or Command

Items

27 boxes of cards

Publication

Readex

Parliamentary materials on microfilm and in print can be borrowed from or in some cases digitized on demand by the Center for Research Libraries.