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This is a brief guide to researching British government records on Parliament. Parliamentary records are wide-ranging and can sometimes be complicated. Most are available online or from the Parliamentary Archives.
This guide will help you gain a general overview of the main sources of information, and where to find them.
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What records can I see online?
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Parliamentary Papers (1715-2005)
Search the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers website (institutional subscription required) for a sessional papera report or paper which has been tabled in Parliament in the House of Commons 1715-2005, or additional material for both houses back to 1660. These records are searchable in a number of ways, including by keyword, date and paper number.
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Public Acts of Parliament (1801-present)
Search by date for Public General Acts of Parliament as they were originally enacted. There are full text versions of all Public General Acts from 1988 and Local Acts from 1991, and digitised versions of some Acts from 1801.
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Parliament Rolls (1275-1504)
Search the medieval Parliament Rolls (£there will be a charge) which contain the official records of the English parliament from 1275 to 1504. Some digital images of the records are included on the site.
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Acts of Parliament and other legislation (1235-present)
Search the Justis Publishing website (institutional subscription required; free access on site at The National Archives, Kew) for General Acts of Parliament from 1235, Local Acts of Parliament from 1797 and statutory instruments from 1949.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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Parliament rolls (1327-2005)
Browse Discovery, our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies, for enrolled copies of public acts, and a number of private acts, between 1327 and 2005 in C 65. Some of the original documents are in Latin, Anglo-Norman or Medieval French, but texts and translations have been published on the Parliament Rolls website.
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, pay for research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Parliamentary archives
Visit the Parliamentary Archives website to find out what material they hold in their collection and how best to access it. They also have a comprehensive list of Digitised Historical Parliamentary Material held elsewhere.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Search for legislation from 1267 to the present day on legislation.gov.uk, the UK's official legislation website.
Consult the History of Parliament website for a comprehensive account of parliamentary politics in England, then Britain, from their origins in the 13th century.
Search The Times Archive and Guardian and Observer Digital Archive to view articles (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) about Parliamentary proceedings.
Search the Hansard website to view the full text of debates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords from 1803 to 2005. You can search by date and keyword. Not all debates have been transcribed yet.
Search British History Online for the Journals of the House of Lords, Journals of the House of Commons and other parliamentary material from 1509 to 1834.
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Books
Consult The House of Commons series (History of Parliament Trust, 1964 onwards).
Read A Short Guide to the Records of Parliament by Maurice Bond (House of Lords Records Office, 1980).
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16th and 17th century political history
18th century political history
Foreign countries