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Physical & Digital Collections

Official Publications: Parliamentary Proceedings

A guide to the official publications collections held within the Cambridge University Libraries.

Journals

Whereas Hansard is a record of what was said in Parliament, the Journal is a record of business done.

Parliament.uk website:

House of Commons Journal 1837 - 

House of Lords Journal 1997 -

Pepper v Hart research

Pepper v Hart research (named after the 1993 case) is research into the parliamentary debates around a particular clause of a bill to discern the intention of Parliament. If primary legislation is ambiguous it may be possible to present statements from Hansard in court.

This House of Commons Research Briefing and Report explains it fully.

Some helpful summary guides have been produced by the Law Society and Lincoln's Inn.

Public Information Online Standing Committees 1919-

Standing Committee/Public Bill Committee Debates Archive 1997-2015/16

Public Bill Committees are included in the main Commons Hansard

Parliamentary procedure

The current edition of Erskine May's treatise on the law, privileges, proceedings and usage of Parliament is now available digitally on the Parliament UK website.

Erskine May's treatise is the most authoritative text on UK Parliamentary procedure and conventions.

Parliament Live TV

You can watch Parliament Live TV in real-time on your desktop.

There is also a searchable archive of all the audio and video recordings that have been made of the House of Commons, House of Lords and Committee meetings since 4th December 2007.

Parliamentary Debates

The printed volumes of Hansard can be requested and fetched to the Rare Books room. There were three series: House of Commons, House of Lords and Standing Committee Debates.

 

https://hansard.parliament.uk

Search for Members, their contributions, debates, petitions and divisions from published Hansard reports commencing May 2010.

 

Hansard - Commons

House of Commons 1988-2016 and links to further archives.

Hansard - Lords

House of Lords 1995-2016 and links to further archives.

 

UK Parliamentary Papers

Includes Hansard from 1803-2005, Parliamentary Register 1774-1805, some historical accounts from 1660-1743.

 

Public Information Online

House of Commons Hansard 1803-
House of Lords Hansards 1909-
Standing Committee series 1919-

 

Hansard Corpus
Searchable full text of Hansard from 1803-2005 with numerous search options available.

BBC video explaining how Hansard is compiled

Hansard

Photo of two green volumes of Hansard (parliamentary debates) with an open volume in front.

Parliament Rolls

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