How to look for records of... Parliament

Documents created by Parliament encompass a wide range of document types, including:

• Accounts of debates (including Hansard and Journals) in the House of Commons and House of Lords
• Command Papers (documents that set out major government initiatives, the content of which will be of interest to Parliament)
• Act Papers (a document that is required by law to be presented to Parliament)
• Records produced by Parliamentary committees (which consider policy issues, scrutinise government work, expenditure, and examine proposals for legislation)
• Deposited papers (documents that are made available to Parliament, usually by a government minister in response to a request for information by an MP or member of the Lords)

The National Archives now holds the records that contributed to the creation of Command Papers, Deposited Papers and other parliamentary records, as well as the final published versions produced by Parliament. Almost all the original records of the House of Commons were lost in the fire that destroyed the building in 1834.

Records of Parliament also include records of legislation. Legislation is a law or set of laws passed by Parliament. These include:

• Acts of Parliament – Laws approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords and have received Royal Assent.
• Public Acts – Laws that apply nationally. These are the most common type of act and include major constitutional, criminal, financial and social legislation that affects the public.
• Private Acts – Laws that apply to specific individuals, organisations or local areas. They were often used for matters such as estate management, divorce, enclosure, naturalisation, or the creation of local authorities and companies. Private Acts were not always printed or published.
• Local and Personal Acts – A category of Private Acts from the 19th century onward which deal with local infrastructure or specific bodies, such as railways, canals, utilities and local government powers.
• Statutory instruments – a form of delegated legislation that allow the government to amend or update existing laws without passing a new Act.

Original Acts of Parliament before 1497 are held at The National Archives. From 1497 onwards, they form part of the Parliamentary Archives collection, which has relocated to The National Archives. All current legislation is published online at legislation.gov.uk.

Parliamentary Papers

House of Commons Papers (1715-2015) and House of Lords Papers (1714-1911) are digitised and available via Proquest UK Parliamentary Papers, a subscription service available via university libraries and large reference libraries, including onsite at The National Archives.

Public Petitions to Parliament (1833-1918), also available via Proquest and accessible onsite at The National Archives, offers an insight to contemporary public opinion and the priorities of both the populace and Parliament.

Select Committee Reports (1997 to present) are available via the Parliament website. Command Papers and other Government papers (2005 to present) can be found via the Government website.

Most Deposited Papers are only available via the House of Commons or House of Lords enquiry services. The Deposited Paper database on the Parliament website is a catalogue of Deposited Papers from 1987 to date, with the papers available digitally from November 2007 onwards. Before that the papers are only available in hard copy.

Printed sets of Parliamentary Papers may also be accessible in large reference libraries such as university libraries.

Hansard (reports of Parliamentary debates)

Hansard is an edited verbatim report of what is said in the House of Commons and House of Lords Chamber, Westminster Hall, and Grand Committee. The speeches are recorded and then edited but care is taken to always ensure that this does not take away from the meaning of what was said. Written statements are also included.

Hansard can be freely accessed and searched online via:

• Historic Hansard (1803-2005)
• Hansard (1803 to present day)

A small number of Hansard volumes are missing from the websites. Lists of volumes which are missing or partially missing are available on Parliament’s website. To access these, you need to find printed editions of Hansard, which will be accessible in large reference libraries such as university libraries.

Before 1803 parliamentary debates were unofficial. The most complete collection of these is Cobbett’s Parliamentary History of England, 1066-1803 via Digital Bodleian.

Acts of Parliament and legislation

Access to the following legislation is available via legislation.gov.uk.

• All primary legislation (Acts of Parliament) from 1988 to present day
• Most pre-1988 legislation that is still in force, as well as most published local, private and personal Acts
• All secondary legislation (Statutory Instruments) from 1987

The National Archives also holds printed versions of published legislation, accessible via our reference library. This includes Statutes of the Realm and Local Acts of Parliament. Enrolled, or finalised, copies of all Public Acts (and some Private Acts) are also available in Chancery’s Parliament rolls (see the relevant section below for more information).

Printed legislation may also be accessible in large reference libraries such as university libraries. Digitised copies may also be found via other websites such as The Statutes Project.

You can also search the VLex Justis Publishing website  (institutional subscription required; free access on site at The National Archives) for General Acts of Parliament from 1235, Local Acts of Parliament from 1797 and statutory instruments from 1949.

Journals

The Journals are the formal daily minutes of the House of Commons and House of Lords. They record what was done rather than what was said.

House of Commons Journals from 1835-2015 are available online via Parliament’s website. Some Commons Journals pre 1835 are available online via British History Online.

House of Lords Journals 1997-2017 are also available via Parliament’s website. Limited Lords Journals can be found online via British History Online.

The National Archives holds manuscript and print Journals for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as associated calendars and indexes. Printed Journals may also be accessible in other large reference libraries such as university libraries.

House of Lords Judgments

The House of Lords was the highest court in the UK until 2009. All Lords judgments from 14 November 1996 to 30 July 2009 are available online via the Parliament website.

Selected Lords judgments between 1709 and 2009 are also available via the BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute) website.

Printed Lords judgments may also be accessible in large reference libraries such as university libraries and law libraries. Digitised copies may also be found in legal subscription databases accessible via law libraries, such as Westlaw and Lexis.

Parliament Rolls, 1275-1504

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.

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).

To access these records you will either need to visit us, pay for research (£) or, where you can identify a specific record reference, order a copy (£).

Beaverbrook Library Collections

This collection comprises Lord Beaverbrook’s papers along with archives he accumulated, including the Bonar Law and Lloyd George papers. For detailed guidance on searching within these collections, please refer to our research guides on:

• Beaverbrook papers
• Lloyd George papers
• Bonar Law papers

Parliament Rolls, 1289-2010

Transcriptions and translations of medieval Parliament Rolls, from 1275 to 1504, have been published on the British History Online website, as described in the section above. The original rolls are still available to view in our reading rooms at Kew, as are another 500 years of rolls, unavailable online, up to 2010.

Browse our catalogue for Parliament Rolls between 1289 and 1322 in SC 9, and search by year in C 65 for rolls between 1327 and 2010. Most of the medieval and early modern rolls are in Latin, Anglo-Norman or Medieval French.

Newspaper accounts of Parliamentary debates

National and local newspapers frequently reported on proceedings in Parliament. You can find guidance on accessing these publications in our Newspapers research guide.

The history of Parliament

Consult the History of Parliament website for a comprehensive account of parliamentary politics and biographies of members from both houses in England, then Britain, from their origins in the 13th century.

Books

Find bound volumes of legislation at the British Library.

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).