British Parliamentary Papers online

Exercises using some of the resources mentioned in the presentation

Free resources:

1) http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/

In the Search box on the left, type Nuclear power

You’ll see from the results screen that there are many documents on Nuclear Power available from this database.

Find the White Paper (a Command Paper) entitled

Meeting the energy challenge: a white paper on nuclear power.

Command 7296, Session 2008

Click the title of the paper, and a link to Full Text pdf is available from the next screen.

Ignore the Buy Now link: we subscribe to this database and the paper is free.

2) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

Click Browse Legislation from the tabs below the title.

Select UK Public General Acts

Move the timeline to find 1987 and find the Channel Tunnel Act, 1987 chapter 53

Click the title to display full text. Several full text options are available from the Opening Options link on the left and the Print Options button on the right (including pdf full text)

3) http://www.parliament.uk/

Click the Parliamentary Business tab and then click

Publications and Records

Select Commons Hansard and then By MP to find Hansard entries by a particular person.

Choose Commons debates by MP Session 2008-09

Select “S” and then Mr Dennis Skinner

Then choose Spoken by Subject and Banking (Asset Protection Scheme) [26 February 2009]

And you’ll get a transcript of the outspoken Labour MP’s views on the banking crisis.

Subscription databases from the library databases A-Z page at

http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/searchresources/databases/

4) Find Public Information Online

Click Scottish Parliament from the left frame and then Acts from the list

Scroll down to the Forth Crossing Act 2011, click the title, and you’ll find not only the Act, full text as a pdf file, but links to all the debates in Committee and explanatory notes concerning this legislation.

5) Find House of Commons Parliamentary Papers from the databases A-Z

Click Search from the toolbar and type Beveridge in the Chair/Author field

These Commons Papers are much older and if you scroll down to the 1942-43 session you’ll find the report called Social Insurance and Allied Services, Cmd 6404, which laid the foundations of the postwar Welfare State. Click to display the first page of the report.

At the bottom of the page there are download options including full text pdf, while at the top right there’s an option to Save in My Archive

6) Now we’ll try a subject search.

Click Search from the top of the page

On the right of the Subject field there’s the option to Select from an alphabetical subject list

Select that and type Slavery in the search box

Choose some 19th Century subject headings and click Select

The terms will transfer to the search page where you click Search

731 records are listed, all full text

7) Find Parliament Rolls of Medieval England from the A-Z database list

Select Edward I (1272-1307) from the list on the right

Parliaments at this time were called by the monarch and not held continuously. There was no House of Commons, and members were landed gentry and churchmen. Effectively a House of Lords.

Type Harlech in the search box, top left.

Select Petition 3 Text/Trans for a Petition to the King for repayment of the cost of victualling (provisioning with food) Harlech Castle during Edward I’s wars against the Welsh king. On the left is the original language of the record, medieval French, I believe.

8) Find State Papers Online 1509-1714 from the A-Z database list

Type Armada 1588 in the Search box.

Select a result with a Manuscript tab below the title such as number 5, Relation of the strength of the Spanish Armada... and click the Manuscript tab.

The original document displays. There is a slide at the bottom of the page (scroll down) to adjust the position of the script on the screen.