House of Lords

Papers and Bills

The House of Lords publishes substantially fewer papers than the Commons. Until the 1986/87 session both Bills and Papers were numbered in one single sequence, but from session 1987/88 they were split into two separately numbered series.

A citation of a Lords Bill should include the date of publication, title, name of the House in which it originated, date of the parliamentary session, Bill number without square brackets, place of publication and publisher.
eg GREAT BRITAIN. 2009. Digital Economy Bill. HL, 2009-10, 1.  London : Stationery Office.

A citation of a Lords Paper should include the name of the committee responsible, date of publication, title, date of the parliamentary session, paper number, place of publication and name of publisher.
eg GREAT BRITAIN. Select Committee on the Constitution. 2009. Surveillance : citizens and the state : second report of session 2008-09. HL, 2008-09, 18-I. London : Stationery Office.

Finding Lords parliamentary papers

• 2006/07 to date: Public Information Online contains the full text of all Lords Bills and Papers. It is updated daily
• 1959/60-2008/09: the Library has complete printed sets of Lords papers. There are a very small number of Bills and Papers from before this date. Apply to Document Supply for any paper not held by the Library. Papers for the years 2003/04-2008/09 are located in Official Publications in the Brotherton Library (West building floor 3), and the remainder are kept on floor 2
• A selection of papers is available on the House of Lords website.