Parliamentary papers after 1707

Many classes of record produced by, or presented to, the British Parliament have been made public since the early 1800s in printed volumes, normally referred to as parliamentary papers. They fall into several categories: Debates (Hansard), Journals, and Sessional Papers. All of these contain material for those researching parliamentary activity affecting Scotland and, especially, evidence presented to parliamentary committees and royal commissions on Scottish subjects.

DEBATES: normally referred to as Hansard, these attempt to publish a verbatim record of debates in parliament. Since 1803 Hansard has been printed and widely published. Before this, there is a variety of unofficial accounts of debates, usually edited from newspaper accounts. The most well-known of these is William Cobbett’s Parliamentary History of England…to 1803 (36 volumes, 1806-1820).

JOURNALS: these constitute the official record of parliamentary proceedings, recording decisions taken (but not everything said in debates).

SESSIONAL PAPERS: from 1801 onwards the papers produced and presented to the House of Commons have been printed and published as ‘sessional papers.’ (i.e. all the papers for one session of parliament are bound together). Until 1979 sessional papers were arranged and referred to by sessional volume and page number. From 1922 onwards some reports and papers began to be printed separately by HMSO as non-parliamentary publications. Sessional papers include parliamentary bills, reports from parliamentary committees, and a wide range of documents presented to parliamentary committees by ministers and officials (e.g. HM Inspectors of Constabulary) called Command Papers. Reports from Committees and Royal Commissions contain evidence presented on specific subjects: these include 19th century investigations on child labour, education, poor relief and prisons.

Much information on prisons and related matters in the 19th century is to be found in the evidence presented to parliamentary commissions. Haythornthwaite (see bibliography) lists eighteen different sets of parliamentary papers relating to Scottish prisons between 1818 and 1899. Among these are returns from 49 royal burghs giving information in jails (1818), and reports of the select committees on Scottish gaols and prisons in 1819, 1826, and 1845, and Scottish evidence in the report of the select committee on penal servitude 1878-98.

Bibliography

The best guide to material in parliamentary papers relating to Scotland is:

Haythornthwaite, J. A., N. C. Wilson and V. A. Batho, Scotland in the Nineteenth Century: an analytical bibliography of material relating to Scotland in Parliamentary Papers, 1800-1900 (Scolar Press, 1993)

Other useful works are:

General Index to the Reports from Committees of the House of Commons, 1715-1801, printed but not inserted in the Journals of the House, 1803 (Chadwyck-Healey, 1973)

Cockton, P, Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900 (5 vols), (Chadwyck-Healey, 1988)

A General Index to the Sessional Papers Printed by Order of the House of Lords or Presented by Special Command, 1801-1859; 1859-1870; 1871-1885 (3 vols.), (HMSO, 1938, 1872, 1890)

Ford, P. and G. Ford, Select List of British Parliamentary Papers, 1833-1899 (Basil Blackwell, 1953)

Ford, P. and G. Ford, A Guide to Parliamentary Papers (Irish University Press, 1972)

Pemberton, J. E., British Official Publications (Pergamon Press, 1973)

Rodgers, F. A., A Guide to British Government Publications (H. W. Wilson, 1980)