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Sessional Papers
- The parliamentary papers of the House of Commons, also called the Sessional Papers or "Blue Books", began in 1801.
- Not every Sessional paper gets printed.
- The Journals between 1541 and 1730 have reports of the committees or government department and are indexed under the headings "printing" and "reports of the Committees".
- Prior to 1833 Command Papers were usually printed in the Journal of the House of Commons.
- Prior to 1921 almost all important government documents were presented to parliament by Royal Commissions or government departments. Beginning in 1921 only documents that pertained to pending legislation were presented.
- Sessional papers include bills (public and private); reports (of Commissioners and Committees); and accounts and papers and command papers (non-Parliamentary papers printed "by command").
- The indexes to the Sessional papers provide you with a citation to help you locate the document consisting of
- a sessional year(s) (usually overlapping).
- Next in parenthesis a number which is printed at the bottom left hand corner of the title page of the report within the physical volume.
- Then comes a Roman numeral, which indicates the specific volume within the set and last is a page number indicating the page on which the report would start if the volume were continuously paged (which they are not).
- An example is 1912/13 (214) I. 722
- Command Papers are presented to both the House of Lords and the House of Commons but only printed in the House of Commons Sessional Papers.
- All papers except the Command Papers (also known as the white or green papers) begin with a new series of numbers for each session. See below for Command Paper numbering.
| Command Paper Number System | |
|---|---|
| Years Covered | Abbreviation |
| 1833-1869 | 1-4222 |
| 1870-1899 | C. 1-C. 9550 |
| 1900-1918 | Cd. 1-Cd. 9239 |
| 1919-1956 | Cmd. 1-Cmd. 9889 |
| 1957-1985/1986 | Cmnd. 1-Cmnd. 9927 |
| 1986/1987- | Cm. 1 - |
| House of Commons | ||
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | Title | |
| 1715-1800 | House of Commons Sessional Papers of the Eighteenth century Location: Wilson Library Folio J301 .K625 1975 |
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| 1731-1918 (includes index) | Sessional Papers Location: Wilson Library Annex Sub-Basement J301 .K5 (Microcard) |
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| 1919-1977/1978 | Sessional Papers Location: Wilson Library Annex Sub-Basement J301 .K6 |
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| 1979/1980- | British Parliamentary Papers: House of Commons Sessional Papers Location: Wilson Library Gov Pub (Reference) Mfiche Microfiche Cabinet 10 & 11 |
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| 1994- | Official Documents-TSO | |
| House of Lords (The CRL Library has the complete set.) | ||
| Coverage | Title | |
| 1678-1714 | The manuscripts of the House of Lords. (Reprints many Lords Sessional Papers for this time period) Location: Wilson Library Annex Sub-Basement DA25.M2 H8 1887 |
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| 1990/91- | House of Lords Sessional Papers Location: Wilson Library Gov Pub (Reference) Mfiche Microfiche Cabinet 10 & 11 |
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