Guide to Parliamentary Work

5. Parliamentary Papers

5.1 There are five main classes of parliamentary papers; House of Commons Bills and House of Lords Bills; House of Lords Papers; House of Commons Papers and Command Papers. Bills and Papers from both Houses form part of the papers produced by Parliament and its Committees. These also include the Votes and Proceedings (Commons) and the Minute (Lords), the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, Standing Orders and Sessional Returns. In addition papers presented to Parliament include Command Papers and Deposited Papers.

Vote and Proceedings and the Minute

5.2 The Vote Bundle is the daily collation of working papers issued each sitting day to Members of Parliament (MPs) and others, setting out past and forthcoming business in the House of Commons. It is, in effect, the minutes of the last meeting, an agenda for the day, and a programme of future business. The bundle comprises two basic parts, which are further subdivided. The white pages deal with past and current business and the blue pages deal with future business. On Wednesdays, where a deferred division is due to take place under Standing Order No. 41A, a pink ballot paper is also included in the bundle. It is essential that the Order Paper is scrutinised carefully every morning so that all items of relevant parliamentary business are identified and actioned as appropriate. Ministers should be informed of relevant changes.

5.3 The white pages published on a sitting day include;

• Summary Agenda^*
• Order of Business (including Future Business)^*
• Votes and Proceedings^*
• Papers available today
• Committee papers (amendment lists; Order Papers for the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Grand Committees; Proceedings of yesterday’s Public Bill Committee meetings)

Also available are;

• ‘The Questions Book’. A separate daily document of outstanding questions for written answer^*
• Order of Business in Westminster Hall

(^* - these items are available on the Parliament website )

5.4 The blue pages include;

• Notices of questions given on the previous day
• Private Business
• Notices of Motions for which no date if fixed (ie Early Day Motions)
• Notices of new Amendments tabled for future days

Summary Agenda

5.5 Introduced following a recommendation of the Modernisation Committee, it summarises the House’s main business for the day, giving indicative timings where possible. Memoranda, including various miscellaneous items of information, are often placed on the back of the agenda.

Order of Business

5.6 The Order of Business is in effect the House’s agenda. It follows the normal order in which business is conducted, although not every item of business necessarily appears. For example, Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements that are made with no prior notification do not appear. These instead appear on the annunciators throughout the Palace and Whitehall to alert MPs and others to the additional business on that day. The various headings relate to the main categories of business:

• Private Business after Prayers - Proceedings on Private Bills, often initiated by local authorities or private companies and applying only to a particular company, area or undertaking, are put on the Order Paper by the Chairman of Ways and Means. For business to proceed at this stage it must be unopposed. If objected to, either printed in the Order Paper or by a cry of “object”, then the Chairman of Ways and Means nominates time for the proceeding to be debated and it will appear on the Order Paper as Opposed Private Business when it is scheduled to take place. (In practice, Opposed Private Business debates never take place on a Friday);
• Questions for Oral Answer - These appear every day except Friday based on the five week rota produced by the House. Questions appear in the order in which they first appeared in the ‘blues’ (blue covered pages of the vote bundle) following the questions shuffle procedure. However, it is important for Departments to pay close attention to any withdrawals etc. For those Departments that also answer topical Questions there is also a separate list of those Members who have been successful in the ballot to ask the department a Topical Question.;
  
  Following this are listed Urgent Questions, Business Question to the Leader of the House (if a Thursday) and notice of Ministerial Statements. This may include a provisional title of Ministerial Statements where prior notice has been given by the Leader of the House of Commons;
• Preliminary Business – This may include presentation of government bills or private members’ bills, ten-minute rule motions (which includes a short speech from the proposer and possibly a short speech against, with a subsequent division). Other motions may relate to business, referring certain proceedings to committee and other motions to be put forthwith.
• Main Business – This contains the orders of the day and notices of motions, the main items of business for that days sitting are listed and may include government bills, government motions, Opposition day debates, business motions and, on Fridays, private members bills. All government business is denoted by a dagger symbol besides its title. The names of the Members sponsoring a motion appear beneath the title. Any time limits or other rules for the business being considered, as previously agreed by the House, appear in italics under the business listed on the Order Paper (however the Speaker may impose time limits on the day of debate without prior notification on the Order Paper). At the end of the main business is the name of the Member selected to raise the topic of the adjournment debate;
• Committees –listing all the committee meetings taking place that day. It includes select committees, joint committees of both Houses and the various legislative committees. The information provides details of the timing and venue, the business being considered, whether the meeting is public or private and the names of any witnesses giving evidence.
• Publication of Select Committee Reports – listing all select committee reports being published that day. It includes the name of the committee and the report, together with the publication time and House of Commons paper number.
• Written Ministerial Statements to be made today – A list of WMSs being issued that day, with the names of the issuing departments and the subject as notified to the table office by the specific department; and
• Future Business – this is comprised of six sections.
  1. lists the business for future days. This is based on the business statement made by the Leader of the House of Commons but will also include which department is answering oral questions, ten-minute rule motions and the subjects of adjournment debates. This business should be considered provisional in its nature as it can be amended.
  2. lists the business to be taken in Westminster Hall over the following two sitting weeks. Timings are listed together with the leading Member and the subject matter of the debate.
  3. Remaining orders and notices lists almost entirely government business, formally set down for that day but in practice it is government business waiting to be put onto the effective orders. The business includes government bills awaiting second reading or report stage, motions to approve statutory instruments subject to the affirmative resolution procedure and other government motions eg. for debates on the floor of the House or for the House to make decisions on. Amendments to these motions also appear in this section when they are tabled. The items do not necessarily appear in the order in which they will be taken.
  4. is a list of other business set down for specific days in the future, and includes notice of forthcoming ten-minute rule motions and business set down for Private Member Bill (PMB) Fridays.
  5. lists the European Union Documents to be considered in European Committees and provisional dates where known.
  6. lists future Written Ministerial Statements where notice has been given.

Votes and Proceedings

5.7 Also known simply as ‘the Vote’, these are in effect the minutes of the previous day’s business but, unlike normal minutes, they record only the outcomes and nothing of the detailed discussion which took place. It is a concise record of facts without any detail of the often long debate. The record is complied by the Journal Office from the entries in the minute books of the Clerk at the Table and accumulated annually into the published journal of the House of Commons.

5.8 The Votes and Proceedings consists of four main parts

• The record of proceedings in the Chamber itself, in the order in which they happened. This usually starts with a record of which departments answered questions and the subject of any ministerial statements, before moving on to substantive business such as presentation of bills, and the main Government (or Opposition) business of the day. The main body of the Vote also records proceedings which do not require anything to happen on the floor of the House (known as “book entries”, because they are recorded in the Clerks’ minute-books), such as the receipt of a message from the House of Lords.
• This is followed by reports from General Committees which have completed consideration of a bill, statutory instrument or EU document at that day’s sitting, followed by a list of Members and Chairmen appointed to General Committees that day (usually for meetings on a future date).
• After the entries relating to General Committees come the reports of that day’s select committee meetings, which include a note of any reports agreed to and evidence taken that day (though these may not be published for some time after they are reported to the House).
• Finally, an Appendix lists all the papers which were laid before the House, such as statutory instruments, Command papers and annual reports and accounts.

Papers available today

5.9 A list of the sections of the vote bundle that day, in the order they appear, with page locations.

Committees

5.10 Any further papers will consist of amendment lists for consideration during committee stage of a bill, details of the proceedings in any of the Public Bill Committees meeting the previous day and order papers for the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Grand Committees. The proceedings detail the full text of any amendment being considered and the fate of that amendment.

Blue Pages – Notices of Questions

5.11 The first section of the blue pages or ‘the blues’ contains notice of questions tabled the previous day, arranged by date for answer, and within each day in alphabetical order by department. At the end of each question is listed its unique reference number. The section includes those questions previously appearing but transferred for answer to another department with [transferred] appearing after the question. Questions marked with ‘N’ are named-day questions for answer on a specific day. It is also the first notice of questions tabled for oral answer, these being denoted by an asterisk. It is important to remember that corrections to questions may be made and the wording should be checked later to ensure the Member tabling the question has not amended it. Any questions withdrawn by a Member is marked [withdrawn] and if a Member wishes to change an oral question to a written question it is marked [unstarred].

Private Business

5.12 A list of all private bills to be taken in the House or in committee, and notices of motions regarding future private business which are to appear on the Order Paper on future days.

Notices of Motions

5.13 Early Day Motions: EDMs are listed in sequential order from the start of each session (with all EDMs falling at prorogation). These motions for debate on an unspecified time in the near future are mainly tabled by backbench Members to raise awareness of and gauge support for an issue. However, this is also the method used for motions of no confidence in the Government and ‘prayers’ against statutory instruments subject to the negative procedure in order to seek a debate. Since Government business takes priority, EDMs are rarely debated. Following their initial printing EDMs are only reprinted if further names are added or amendments are tabled. EDMs stand, unless withdrawn, until the end of the session. The EDM Database [External website] provides a list of all EDMs and those Members who have signed up to each.

Notices of Amendments

5.14 Notices of new amendments tabled for public bill committees (and committee of the whole House) on future days are listed on the blue sheets.

House of Lords

5.15 Together with the Hansard specific to proceedings in the House of Lords, there are two additional core documents giving information about the business in the Lords: the white order paper (basically the agenda for that day) and ‘House of Lords Business’.

House of Lords Business

5.16 House of Lords Business is printed after each day’s business and includes future business, so far as arranged, and the Minutes of Proceedings. It also includes:

• business of which notice has been given but for which no day has been named. This is grouped into five main Headings; Motions for balloted debate; Select Committee reports for debate; Other Motions for debate; Motions relating to Statutory Instruments and Questions for short debate;
• list of questions for written answer tabled that day, together with a list of questions which remain unanswered after 14 days. These are listed by the date they were tabled and include details of the Peer tabling the question, the reference number, the date it was due for answer and the responsible government department;
• legislation – a list of bills in progress, measures, affirmative and hybrid instruments, Northern Ireland Assembly legislation, regulatory reform orders, human rights remedial orders and special procedure orders in progress, showing the stage reached by each and the next date for consideration where known; and
• meetings of committees.

5.17 The Minutes of Proceedings is similar to that of the Commons in that it records of actions and decisions are listed rather than what is said in any debate. It is set out in the following order:

• preliminary matters, such as prayers, Members taking the oath etc;
• select committee report printing orders;
• private business;
• public business, in the order in which it is taken in the House;
• minutes of proceedings of any Grand Committees and public bill committees;
• papers laid before the House;
• judicial business, including details for the following day, if any; and
• lists of members voting in any divisions.

House of Commons Papers

5.18 House of Commons Papers are one of the five main classes of parliamentary papers, and result from the work of the House and its Committees. Each paper in the series is identified by the prefix HC and the session in which it is published. The Votes and Proceedings desk in the Journal Office of the House of Commons allocates the numbers, which begin at 1 at the start of every session. Documents are referred to by number and session eg HC368 2003-04 (Select Committee on Modernisation report on ‘Connecting Parliament with the public’)

5.19 The main papers included in this series are: Select Committee papers; Minutes of proceedings of Public Bill Committees; Returns to Addresses by the House; Estimates and Appropriation etc. Accounts; Certain annual and other reports required by statute to be laid before the House and House returns.

5.20 The day-to-day business papers appearing in the vote bundle are not included in this series.

Sessional Returns (House Returns)

5.21 The Sessional Return is produced at the end of each parliamentary session and summarises the business conducted by the House and its committees. This includes: closure of debate, proposal of question and allocation of time; sittings of the House; Private bills and private business; public bills; delegated legislation and regulatory reform orders; European legislation; Grand Committees and Committee on Regional affairs; Chairman’s Panel and Select Committees.

5.22 The Sessional Returns were first published in consolidated form as a single House of Commons Paper for Session 1986-87 and are available on the internet for all sessions from 1997-98.

Returns of the following have been placed in the House of Commons Library where they may be inspected by Members.

1. Closure of debate in the House and in Standing Committees dating back to 1887 and 1907 respectively;
2. Delegated Legislation from Session 1974-75;
3. Private Bills and Private Business from 1981;
4. Sittings of the House from Session 1960-61; and
5. Special Procedure Orders from Session 1972-73

Copies have also been supplied to the Parliamentary Archives, where they are available for public inspection.

5.23 The Public Bill Office of the House of Commons maintains a public bill index from 1922 to the present day. Public and Private Bills and Delegated Legislation are also listed by session in the Part II Index to the relevant House of Commons Journal. Substantial other procedural information can also be derived from this Index, for example the date of each stage in the passage of a particular Bill through the House of Commons, and instances of closure in the House and in Committees of the whole House.

Standing Orders (and Parliamentary Procedure)

5.24 Parliamentary procedure regulates the proceedings of the House and can be divided up into four main sections:

• Practice is the general understanding established over the centuries and does not need to be formally written down;
• The Standing Orders are the rules under which Parliament conducts its business and they regulate the way Members behave and debates are organised. Some Standing Orders are temporary and only last until the end of a session or a Parliament. There are over 160 Standing Orders relating to public business in the Commons (88 in the Lords) and over 270 relating to private business;
• In the House of Commons Rulings from the Chair relate to decisions on procedure which have been referred to the Speaker for clarification. These rulings are later included in newer editions of the Erskine May’s Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament. The book has been revised regularly by successive Clerks of the House and is commonly known as Erskine May. Sir Thomas Erskine May was Clerk of the House of Commons between 1871 and 1886;
• In the House of Lords, procedure is developed by the House itself through the Procedure Committee which considers any proposals for changes to Standing Orders. In the House of Lords the Procedure Committee authorises the revision of the Companion to the Standing Orders of the House of Lords. It was originally written by Sir John Shaw-Lefevre, the Clerk of the Parliaments in 1862; and
• Other proceedings are controlled by Acts of Parliament which cover such things as Taking the Oath or presenting Bills to Parliament.

5.25 Within the House of Commons the Standing Orders (relating to Public Business) cover the following matters;

5.26 Within the House of Lords the Standing Orders (relating to Public Business) cover the following matters;

Register of Members’ Financial Interests

5.27 The Register of Members' Financial Interests is published shortly after the beginning of a new Parliament, under the authority of the Committee on Standards and Privileges, and annually thereafter. Between publications the Register is regularly updated and is available for public inspection in the Committee Office of the House of Commons or via the internet. Employment agreements deposited with the Registrar are available for personal inspection only.

5.28 Since 1974, the Register has contained payments, financial relationships, paid employment, gifts or benefits in kind, to provide information of any pecuniary interest which a Member receives which might reasonably be thought by others to influence his or her actions, speeches or votes in Parliament, or actions taken in his or her capacity as a Member of Parliament.

5.29 Members are required to notify the House of any relevant interest they have (known as “declaration”) when debating and also in written proceedings in the House, for example, tabling Early Day Motions, amendments to bills or parliamentary questions. Where a Member declares an interest in these situations their name is followed by the letter ‘R’ in square brackets. The thresholds set for registration are normally linked to one per cent of salary or to a statutory limit.

5.30 The Registrar of Members’ Financial Interests is responsible for maintaining the register and advising Members on the rules. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is responsible for investigating complaints that a Member has breached these rules. The Commissioner reports findings to the Committee on Standards and Privileges, which may then report to the House, and, if necessary, the House may decide on any penalties.

5.31 Ministers must also comply with the Ministerial Code and any reporting regime managed by the Cabinet Secretary, as well as with the rules of the House, in their capacity as MPs.

House of Lords Papers

5.32 A system similar to that operating in the House of Commons exists so that documents, such as select committee reports, the roll of the Lords and the House of Lords Annual Report and Accounts can be published. To do this they need the authority of the House which is given by means of a silent minute entry – the document being published ‘by order of the House’. Similalry to the House of Commons, papers are given a prefix (in this case HL) and are numbered beginning at one from the start of each session.

Command Papers

5.33 Command papers are one of the main classes of Parliamentary Papers and consist of Government publications presented to Parliament. The term ‘Command’ comes from the fact they are presented to the United Kingdom Parliament nominally by ‘Command of Her Majesty’, but in practice generally by a Government Minister. The Command Paper series are papers of interest to Parliament where presentation to Parliament is not required by statute and include State papers (including treaties and international agreements), White and Green Papers (Government policy proposals or consultations), some Government responses to Select Committee reports, Reports of Royal Commissions and statistics and annual reports of some government bodies. The presumption should be that any paper that will lead to a debate in Parliament or a statement by a Minister should be published as a Command Paper. The same procedure for publishing is followed regardless of the type of paper.

5.34 Apart from a few exceptions they are published in a numbered series. This system was introduced in 1833 and the current series uses the prefix Cm. The first series, unprefixed, ran to No. 4222 of 1868-69. This was followed by C1 to C9550 (1870-1899), Cd1 to Cd 9239 (1900-1918), Cmd1 to Cmd 9889 (1919-1956), Cmnd1 to Cmnd9927 (1956-1986) and Cm1 onwards from 1986. The Unprinted Command (UC) series is made up of the few papers each year that are presented by Command but not printed in the Command Paper numbered series. These include things like the BBC and Sports Council Annual Reports.

5.35 A list of Command Papers from 2001 onwards is available on the OPSI website [External website], either listed alphabetically by department or numerically by Command Paper number. Command Papers are published on Departmental websites and on the Official Documents website where they can be viewed in HTML or PDF and purchased. The OPSI website also contains a comprehensive guide to the procedures for printing, publishing and presentation to Parliament of Command Papers entitled ‘How to Publish a Command Paper’ [External PDF].

5.36 Normally, Command Papers are presented to both Houses, but it is not unknown for presentation to be made only to one.

Deposited Papers

5.37 Guidance on the rules for depositing papers is regularly published by the House of Commons Library and should be referred to alongside this guidance. Deposited Papers are those placed in the Library of either House by a Minister, or Commons or Lords Speakers, which are not laid before the House in any other way (i.e. is not a command paper etc). Occasionally, the Members with responsibility for representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission or the Church Commissioners are allowed to deposit papers but no other Member may deposit papers in this series. These papers tend to fall into several categories and may include: research reports; tables of data; explanatory notes to legislation; diagrams or maps; consultations; Government promotional material; exchanges of correspondence and copies of forms.

5.38 All documents must have the demonstrable commitment of a Minister to be deposited. Without this it will be refused by the Library. This commitment is usually in the form of a response made in a debate or in a written statement, PQ answer or letter from a Minister. The wording of the commitment must use the phrase ‘placed in the Library’ or ‘deposited in the Library’ – it should not use the word ‘laid’. When stating in a statement or during a debate that copies of a document are available, Members should be directed to the Vote Office or Printed Paper Office, not the Library. Deposited papers are accepted throughout recesses and do not have to be in a particular format. Papers to be deposited should be e-mailed to the library with a completed coversheet [External Word Document]. Once deposited, no item can be withdrawn, although a replacement document can be deposited as well as the original. All documents are to be considered in the public domain once deposited and are supplied to members of the public in response to FOI requests. The list of deposited papers, and the full text of electronically sent papers, can be found at http://deposits.parliament.uk [External website]

5.39 Since the 2007/08 session, all documents must be transmitted electronically. In addition, since the 2007/08 session, the deposited papers series has been shared by the Commons and Lords Libraries.

5.40 Parliamentary Clerks should make items not easily accessible from the website available to members of the public wishing to access them.

5.41 Written Ministerial Statements should be sent separately from deposited papers.