Factsheet P15
Procedure Series
Revised August 2010
Contents
Deposited Papers
2
Definition
2
Contents
2
How papers are deposited
2
House of Lords Deposited Papers Error!
Bookmark not defined.
Access to Deposited Papers
3
Access to Members
3
Access to the public
3
Tracing Deposited Papers
4
Numbering
4
Indexes and Lists
4
Other unpublished documents
5
“Will write” letters
5
Unprinted Papers
5
Unprinted Command Papers
5
Regulatory Impact Assessments
5
Indexes of Unpublished Material
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Contact information
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Feedback form
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House of Commons Information Office
House of Commons
Deposited Papers
This Factsheet has been archived so the content
and web links may be out of date. Please visit
our About Parliament pages for current
information.
The House of Commons Information Office is
often consulted by enquirers who have seen a
reply to a Parliamentary Question, or a point in a
debate, in which a Minister says "I am arranging
for a copy of this document to be deposited in the
Library". Invariably these enquirers wish to know
something about the system of deposited papers
and how to obtain copies of particular papers.
This Factsheet describes the types of documents
that are included within the deposited papers set
and how documents are placed there. It explains
how to find details of papers and how the public
may access them.
Deposited papers are sometimes confused with
other types of unpublished documents. Some
information on these is given in the last section of
the Factsheet.
August 2010
FS No.P15 Ed 3.6
ISSN 0144-4689
© Parliamentary Copyright
(House of Commons) 2010
May be reproduced for purposes of
private study or research without
permission.
Reproduction for sale or other
commercial purposes not permitted.
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House of Commons Deposited Papers House of Commons Information Office Factsheet P15
Deposited Papers
Definition
The House of Commons Deposited Papers set includes any paper required to be placed in the
Library by a Minister or by the Speaker, which is not laid before the House in any other way: as
an Act paper (see below), a Command or House of Commons paper (see Factsheets P13 and
P12 for details on these classes of document). The oldest paper in the set dates from 1832 and
concerns an investigation into the Rajah of Travancore's debt payments.
Contents
The vast majority of deposited papers are placed by Ministers in reply to parliamentary
questions. These tend to fall into several categories and may include:
 research reports which it is not intended to publish;
 tables of data;
 statements or communiques issued after conferences;
 explanatory notes to legislation;
 diagrams or maps;
 transcripts of radio/TV interviews;
 consultation documents;
 Government promotional material;
 exchanges of correspondence
 copies of forms
In some cases, departments may consider that depositing a paper meets the wish of Members to
be informed about a subject without the need for them formally to publish it. In previous years
many colonial papers were placed in the series; for the period 1890-1960 deposited papers
would be a very worthwhile source for information and research in this field.
Among the types of paper that are now virtually always deposited papers are: reports on prisons;
consultative documents (since May 1984, unless published as Command Papers); draft
proposals of and submissions to the Boundary Commission; corporate and business plans of
Executive Agencies; letters to Members from Ministers following up points which have been
raised in debates on bills.
Some papers are deposited by the Speaker. These consist largely of papers and messages
transmitted by foreign parliaments. Occasionally, Members speaking on behalf of bodies such as
the Church Commissioners and the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission are
allowed to deposit papers. For example, Dep 02/222 contained details of postal votes, proxy
votes and spoilt ballots at the 2001 General Election and was placed in the Library following a
commitment by Rt Hon A.J. Beith MP who answers questions on behalf of the Speaker’s
Committee on the Electoral Commission.
No other Members may deposit papers in this series, though the Librarian may, at his discretion,
accept papers from them for inclusion in the Library's miscellaneous series of pamphlets.
How papers are deposited
Documents intended to be put in the deposited papers sequence are sent by the parliamentary
clerks of government departments, or by the Speaker's secretary, to the deposited papers clerk in
the House of Commons Library. From the start of the 2007/08 Parliamentary session this is
done electronically and parliamentary clerks e-mail copies of the documents to the Libraries. All
formally deposited papers received are added to the series, with the exception of any obviously
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House of Commons Deposited Papers House of Commons Information Office Factsheet P15
sent in error (for instance, a paper which has also been laid before the House or which is
regularly received in another series, such as press notices). 1 They are numbered and input to the
House of Commons Library parliamentary database, PIMS2 and uploaded to the Parliament
website where they available for download by all users.
From the start of the 2007/08 session the deposited papers series is a single collection shared
by the Commons and Lords. Previously the House of Lords Library maintained a separate parallel
collection of deposits.
Access to Deposited Papers
Access to Members
All items available in the Library must be made available to any Member who asks for them; for
instance, a Department could not restrict papers to Members in only one party or from only one
area. Most papers may be consulted in the House of Commons Library by Members, their staff
and officers and staff of the House.
In the 2001-02 Session, Robin Cook, then Leader of the House, decided that copies of papers
deposited in the Library would also be made available to lobby journalists
Access to the public
Most papers deposited after November 2007 are available on the Parliament website at:
http://deposits.parliament.uk/ but when an electronic version of the document is not available
the public can still obtain a copy by following the procedure below:
Members of the public do not have access to the House of Commons Library. The first port of
call for a member of the public who wants access to a Deposited Paper would normally be the
Parliamentary Clerk of the depositing Government Department. In most cases, if the request is
in writing, the Parliamentary Clerk is obliged to arrange for access to be given to it under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, though there may be a charge for this.
If a member of the public finds difficulty obtaining a paper through the Government Department
responsible, the House of Commons Library will endeavour to assist; the House of Commons
Information Office (HCIO) can undertake to provide a copy of a deposited paper, through the
Reference Services Section of the Library, though again, charges might apply. Contact details for
the HCIO are given at the end of this Factsheet.
There is a list of deposited papers for the current year on the internet
http://deposits.parliament.uk
Older papers are available to the public through the Parliamentary Archives (formerly known as
the House of Lords Record Office), who are the custodians of older parliamentary material.
Parliamentary Archives will release any paper older than 30 years to an enquirer and also any
paper that has been published elsewhere (many deposited papers will also be published as
departmentally-circulated or Stationery Office non-parliamentary papers). Contact details for the
Parliamentary Archives are given at the end of this Factsheet.
1
2
The guidelines for government departments wishing to deposit documents in the Parliamentary Libraries are
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/DPguidelines.pdf
Parliamentary Information Management Service
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House of Commons Deposited Papers House of Commons Information Office Factsheet P15
Tracing Deposited Papers
Numbering
The Library registers and numbers up each paper sent to it. There were three sequences of
numbers over the years until April 1998, when it was decided to start a new series for each
calendar year. The brief summary of the numbering below will give some idea of the growth over
the years of depositing papers as a means of informing Members of various aspects of the work
of Departments.
Old series
Dep OS 1-2500 (1832-1958)
Dep OS 2501-5000 (1958-1972)
Dep OS 5001-7500 (1972-1978)
Dep OS 7501-11029 (1978-1983)
New series
Dep NS 1-10999 (1983-1994)
Third series
Dep 3S 1-6285 (1994-1998)
Fourth series
Deposits begin from number 100 for each calendar year as follows:
98/100 - 1852,
02/100 – 2537
06/100 - 2734
99/100 - 2018,
03/100 – 2712
07/0001 - 0428
00/100 - 2001,
04/100 – 2061
08/0001 - 3179
01/100 – 1859
05/100 – 1773
09/0001 - 3240
Current series – 2010-0001 Indexes and Lists
Manuscript numerical lists, compiled chronologically, exist from 1832 to February 1999. From
1998 a printed list of titles has been generated from the House of Commons Library online
indexing system, in chronological order as before. This is available on the Internet for the current
year.3 Subject referencing to them exists from 1955 to date, and the House of Commons
Information Office can check the relevant volumes on request. From 1983 deposited papers
have been indexed online and again Information Office staff can assist with searches.
Historically important papers
Among the interesting or historically important papers in the series are: Papers of the Epping
Forest Commission 1877 (Old Series No 25); papers relating to the grievances of South African
Indian residents 1895 (OS No 52); laws relating to Coolie labour 1904 (OS No 100);
despatches on the Opium trade 1937 (OS No 690); proceedings and evidence of the Gresford
Colliery Disaster Inquiry 1938 (OS No 740); copies of leaflets dropped over Germany 1944 (OS
No 950); extracts of correspondence between Jinnah and Gandhi 1944 (OS No 974); papers
relating to Mau Mau oath ceremonies 1954 (OS No 1635) and to the Hola Camp 1959 (OS Nos
2621/2649/2668); photographs of military action in Egypt 1956 (OS No 2185); the various
Rayner scrutinies of Civil Service departments; letters relating to the Westland affair 1986 (New
Series No 1997); material on salmonella in eggs (NS No 4657); a report on the environmental
impact of the wreck of MV Braer in Shetland (Third Series No 174); the correspondence
concerning the medical condition of Senator Pinochet (Dep 00/446) and the report of the
enquiry into Doctor Harold Shipman (Dep 02/1651).
The set also includes also many papers of very restricted or local application, including such
minor gems as documents on pig swill 1940 (OS No 851), a return on paramyxo virus in
pigeons 1983 (NS No 131), and a note on the Humdum Experimental Farm in the Gambia
1953 (OS No 1684).
3
http://deposits.parliament.uk./
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House of Commons Deposited Papers House of Commons Information Office Factsheet P15
Other unpublished documents
There are a few categories of material which, although not deposited papers, are sometimes
confused with them. These are:
“Will write” letters
Sometimes a Minister may answer a Parliamentary Question with the formula "I will write to the
Hon Member". From November 19824 until 2004, these letters were made available for
Members in the House of Commons Library and for others in the Parliamentary Archives - the
30-year rule is not applied to them. Copies can be supplied by the House of Commons
Information Office or Parliamentary Archives as appropriate. From the beginning of the 1990-91
session until October 1992, letters to Members from Chief Executives of Government agencies
were treated similarly. Since that date they have generally been published with written answers
to parliamentary questions in Hansard.
Following a statement by Peter Hain on 1st July 2004 (c35-6WS), ministers have been directed
to minimise the use of “will write letters” in response to Parliamentary questions. The statement
says:
“On those occasions where an “I will write” answer is necessary, a copy of the subsequent
substantive response will be sent to Hansard and to the Library, and will be printed with
the written answers in the next edition of Hansard. If the subsequent response is longer
than Hansard would normally publish, notification will be printed that the response is
available in the Library of the House. The response will be available to Members in the
Library and to the public on application to the House of Commons information office. If
Ministers wish to provide, in response to a question, personal or confidential information
that would not be appropriate for publication, this will be made clear in the answer. The “I
will write” formula will not be used and copies will not be sent to Hansard or the Library.”
In the House of Lords, follow-up letters to debating points are always included in the Deposited
Papers collection when promised by ministers.
Unprinted Papers
These are papers laid before the House but not ordered to be printed by it as House of Commons
papers. They are also sometimes known as “Act Papers”. They include a large number of draft
statutory instruments, reports of nationalised industries/statutory undertakers, some accounts
and so forth. Despite the title, many of these papers are published, either by The Stationery
Office or the organisations concerned. Unprinted papers are public documents and can be
consulted by the public by contacting Parliamentary Archives without restriction or obtained from
the relevant organisations. They are numbered by the Library in a new series (UP) each session,
and there are about 2,000 of them in an average session.
Unprinted Command Papers
The Unprinted Command (UC) series is made up of fifteen or twenty papers presented to the
House by Command but not printed in the numbered series. Like Unprinted Papers, these are
public documents and can be referred to similarly.
Regulatory Impact Assessments
From 1993, government departments began to prepare an estimate of the burden on business of
any proposed primary or secondary legislation, entitled Compliance Cost Assessments. From
1999 these have been largely replaced by similar estimates, entitled Regulatory Impact
4
This arrangement was established pursuant to a Parliamentary Question from Mr Eric Deakins MP to the Prime Minister
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House of Commons Deposited Papers House of Commons Information Office Factsheet P15
Assessments. These items are kept for Members by the Library. Public access is via the library
of the government department concerned.
Indexes of Unpublished Material
The presentation of Unprinted Papers and Unprinted Command Papers is noted in the House of
Commons Journal. For pre-1955 Papers, a further reference to the marked HC Library copy of
the Votes and Proceedings is necessary in order to ascertain the running number of the Paper.
After 1955, indexes (unpublished) exist direct from subject and, from 1982, the papers are
retrievable in PIMS, where they constitute types UP and UC. There are no subject indexes to
"will write" or "chief executive" letters, which are arranged by session of receipt and in
alphabetical order of the surname of the Member to whom they were sent. Compliance Cost
Assessments (from Summer 1994) and Regulatory Impact Assessments (from 1999) were listed
in the Weekly Information Bulletin: there is also a twice-yearly Command paper which indexes
them.
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House of Commons Deposited Papers House of Commons Information Office Factsheet P15
Contact information
House of Commons Information Office
House of Commons
London SW1A 2TT
Phone 020 7219 4272
Fax 020 7219 5839
[email protected]
www.parliament.uk
House of Lords Information Office
House of Lords
London SW1A 0PW
Phone 020 7219 3107
Fax 020 7219 0620
[email protected]
Education Services
Houses of Parliament
London SW1A 2TT
Enquiry line 020 7219 2105
Booking line 020 7219 4496
Fax 020 7219 0818
[email protected]
Parliamentary Archives
Houses of Parliament
London SW1A 0PW
Phone: 020 7219 3074
Fax: 020 7219 2570
[email protected]
Parliamentary Bookshop
12 Bridge Street
Parliament Square
London SW1A 2JX
Phone 020 7219 3890
Fax 020 7219 3866
[email protected]
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House of Commons Deposited Papers House of Commons Information Office Factsheet P15
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Factsheet P15
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