How to look for records of... Original Acts of Parliament and Royal Assent

1. Why use this guide?

Use this guide if you are looking for original Acts of Parliament passed after 1275, including the original parchment Acts of Parliament held by the House of Lords, and the Monarch’s signature confirming Royal Assent.

For advice on researching Royal Proclamations, Statutory instruments and Orders in Council read our research guide to Privy Council records.

Refer to legislation.gov.uk for current laws and amendments.

Refer to our research guides for specific guidance on private acts of parliament used for

• Changes of name
• Naturalisation
• Divorce
• Enclosure Acts

2. What are Acts of Parliament?

There are different types of Acts of Parliament:

• Public – Acts that affect the whole country
• Private – Acts that relate to the interests of particular individuals, organisations or localities.

Since 1797, private acts have been divided into two main types:

• Local – Acts that relate to the interests of organisations or localities
• Personal – Acts that relate to the interests of particular individuals

The vast majority of Acts of Parliament have been printed and are easiest to access in printed form. However some are not printed and only survive in the original manuscript parchment form.

Original Acts of Parliament

A bill is a proposed Act of Parliament. Up to 1849, following its report stage (before third reading) in the first House, the text of a bill was copied onto parchment. This document is known as an “engrossed bill”. Amendments made at third reading were also entered on the engrossed bill, but additional clauses were engrossed on separate pieces of parchment (known as riders) which were then stitched to the bill.

All amendments in the second House were written on separate pieces of parchment and were not added to the bill until they had been agreed by both Houses. Engrossed Bills, from 1497 to 1849, became after Royal Assent, the Original Acts.

Since 1849, Original Acts have been printed in book form following Royal Assent. They are bound with a red ribbon. Two copies are made, the record copy for Parliament (Original Act series YHL/PO/PB/1 or YHL/PO/PU/1) and a duplicate for The National Archives (Parliament Rolls series C 65).

Private Acts were printed on vellum (calfskin, a type of parchment) between 1849 and 1956, since when they have been printed on archival paper with vellum covers. Public Acts were printed on vellum between 1849 and 2015, since when they have been printed on archival paper with vellum covers.

Engrossed Bills which did not receive Royal Assent can be found in the House of Lords Main Papers (YHL/PO/JO/10).

Since 1849 the equivalent of the Engrossed Bill, containing the printed bill with amendments made from the second House onwards pasted in, is the House Bill. House Bills can be found in the House of Lords Main Papers (YHL/PO/JO/10).

Original Acts were not preserved for the Commonwealth period 1642-1660 because there was no House of Lords and no monarch to give Royal Assent. See Published Acts of Parliament below.

Royal Assent

Bills become Acts of Parliament only when the Monarch has granted Royal Assent.

Tudor Monarchs usually granted assent by signing the Original Act. The Monarch’s signature or initials can be found at the top left corner of the Original Act.

Since 1603 Royal Assent has been granted via Commissions which are signed by the Monarch. Commissions of Royal Assent are separate documents from Bills and Acts. The Commission includes a Schedule which lists the bills which are ready to receive assent. Commissions also have the Great Seal attached; today this is a small wafer seal. Original Acts do not have seals.

Royal Assent is indicated on the Original Act with a Norman French phrase written by Clerks in the House of Lords at the top of the Act:

• ‘Le Roy/La Reyne le veult’ – The King/Queen wills it (for public bills)
• ‘Soit fait comme il est désiré’ – Let it be done as it is desired (for personal bills)
• ‘Le Roy/La Reyne remercie ses bons sujets, accepte leur benevolence, et ainsi le veult’ (for supply bills)

If Royal Assent is refused to a bill, the phrase used is:

• ‘Le Roy/La Reyne s’avisera’ – The King/Queen will take advice

The last time Royal Assent was refused for a Bill passed by both Houses of Parliament was by Queen Anne, for the Scottish Militia Bill 1707/8.

Other phrases in Norman French may appear at the top of Original Acts. These relate to the passage of the Bill through the Commons and Lords.

Original Acts since 1849 are authenticated by the signature of the Clerk of Parliaments or a deputy, which appears at the end of the Act.

Numbering of Original Acts

Between 1497 and 1902 all Original Acts were allocated a running number by the House of Lords Parliament Office. These Parliament Office numbers were assigned in a single series per session in order of Royal Assent, regardless of whether the Act was public or private. Today these numbers appear at the end of the Original Act catalogue references. Since 1902 this has been replaced by the chapter number allocated to published Acts.

3. Online records

Original Acts of Parliament

Most Original Acts are not digitised.

A selection of Acts have been imaged and digital surrogates are available via the online catalogue. Some of these images are of reference copies, which do not include some original details such as the mark of royal assent and riders (which attached additional text to the bill during its passage through the Houses of Parliament). Reference copies contain the exact text of the final, engrossed version of the Act, as passed by Parliament.

4. Published Acts of Parliament

Legislation.gov.uk

As well as containing law currently in force and amendments, legislation.gov.uk also includes the text of some Acts of Parliament as originally passed. Search for the name of the Act, and where available, there will be an ‘Original (as enacted)’ link on the left. This may be a transcript of the text or a PDF image of the printed Act. Most printed Local, Private and Personal Acts after 1797 are available as PDF images.

Statutes of the Realm

The Statutes of the Realm is the most definitive edition of published public Acts of Parliament dating from 1101 to 1713. The text was compiled in the 19th century by comparing the Original Acts at Westminster with the Statute Rolls and Parliament Rolls held by The National Archives. Copies are available in the reading room and library at The National Archives. Some volumes have been transcribed and are available online via British History Online.  Private Acts of Parliament are listed in The Statutes of the Realm but the text is not included, in which case it may be necessary to consult the Original Act.

Black Letter Acts

The Black Letter Acts, so called after the cursive font used in early volumes, consists of a full edition of Public Acts from 1509 to 1868, and is the best source for published Acts for the period after 1713 when Statutes of the Realm ends. The Parliamentary Archives set is catalogued as YHL/PO/PU/7.

Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum

Legislation for the Commonwealth period 1642-1660 has been collected and published in Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660 available in the reading room and library at The National Archives. Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum has also been transcribed and made available online via British History Online.

Statutes at Large

Another published edition of public Acts of Parliament is Statutes at Large, sometimes called Ruffhead after its first editor, in various editions. Statutes at Large contains the full text of most but not all public Acts; only summaries or titles appear for some, and parts of Acts repealed at the time of publication are often omitted. The Parliamentary Archives set goes up to 1801 and can be found catalogued under YHL/PO/PU/4, which consists of Statutes at Large (as published in 1811) and public general acts published each session thereafter.

Copies of Statutes at Large are available onsite via the The National Archives reference library, but require 6 working days notice to be produced. Visit The National Archives at Kew.

Local, Personal and Private Acts

There are various published editions of printed Local, Personal and Private Acts from 1797 onwards. Parliamentary Archives sets can be found on the The National Archives catalogue under YHL/PO/PB/27, YHL/PO/PB/28, YHL/PO/PB/31 and YHL/PO/PB/32.

Printed Local and Personal Acts 1797-1834 and a collection of Private Bills 1695-1814 have been digitised and are available via the subscription service Proquest UK Parliamentary Papers. Proquest UK Parliamentary Papers is available via large reference libraries and onsite via the The National Archives library catalogue at reader terminals in Kew. Visit The National Archives at Kew.

You can also search the VLex 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.

 

5. How to search for Original Acts of Parliament

In the first instance, please consider if you need the Original Acts of Parliament, remembering they are handwritten and on vellum, or if you only need the text of an Act in which case The Statutes of the Realm or other published edition will better suit your purpose. See Published Acts of Parliament above.

You will need to search the catalogue to identify original records. To view them you will need to visit The National Archives at Kew or pay for copies to be sent to you.

To search the catalogue, you need to know the title of the Act, or its citation. Use our online catalogue to search for the Act, and narrow by date if necessary.

Public Acts

Search for the title of the Act. The original act will have a reference which starts YHL/PO/PU/1.

Private Acts

Search for the title of the Act. The original act will have a reference which starts YHL/PO/PB/1.

Commissions of Royal Assent

Commissions of Royal Assent are part of the House of Lords Main Papers (HL/PO/JO/10) where they usually appear at the end of the Main Papers for each session. Some Royal Commissions are catalogued separately under YHL/PO/JO/15.

Where a Commission relates to a notable Act of Parliament, the Act will be named in the catalogue description. More common is for the catalogue to list only the dates of the Royal Commission. You may therefore need to know the date of Royal Assent for the Act you are searching for so that you can identify the relevant commission.

The date of Royal Assent is listed in the Journal of the House of Lords. The published House of Lords Journals can be ordered up at The National Archives, with the reference starting YHL/PO/JO/2.

The date of Royal Assent may also be listed in Hansard.  However, please note Hansard is not a compete record of proceedings until 1909.

6. Parliament Rolls, 1275-2010

The rolls of parliament were the official records of the meetings of parliament, containing the principal decisions taken and acts passed, along with procedural material, compiled by the clerk of the Parliaments after the end of the assembly. Most of the medieval and early modern rolls are in Latin, Anglo-Norman or Medieval French.

Search for transcriptions and translations of medieval Parliament Rolls, from 1275 to 1504, on the British History Online website (institutional subscription required; free access on site at The National Archives in Kew).

The original rolls are held at The National Archives, between 1289 and 1322 in series  SC 9  and between 1327 and 2010 in  C 65. Rolls between 1504 and 2010 are not available online.

C 65 Parliament rolls contain enrolled copies of public and private acts from 1483-1534, after which they contain all public acts, but only private acts for which an enrolment fee was paid.

7. Further reading

If you would like to know more about how a Bill becomes an Act of Parliament the Cabinet Office has produced guidance on the process.

House of Commons Research Briefing, Royal Assent, 26 February 2024

For more information on the use of vellum for Original Acts see the House of Commons Library Research Briefing, Vellum: printing record copies of public Acts (2018).