British Official Publications. Library and Technical Information

335 Pages·1973·15.707 MB·English

by  John E. Pemberton and G. Chandler (Auth.)

British Official
Publications
SECOND R E V I S ED EDITION
JOHN E.PEMBERTON
B.A., F.L.A.
Librarian, University College at Buckingham
PE R G A M ON PRESS
Oxford • New York
Toronto · Sydney
Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford
Pergamon Press Inc., Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford,
New York 10523
Pergamon of Canada Ltd., 207 Queen's Quay West, Toronto 1
Pergamon Press (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., 19a Boundary Street,
Rushcutters Bay, N.S.W. 2011. Australia
Copyright © 1973 John E. Ptemberton
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
wit/tout the prior permission of Pergamon Press Ltd.
First edition 1971
Second revised edition 1973
Reprinted 1974
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Pemberton, John Ĺ
British offícial publications.
(Library and technical information)
1. Great Britain - Government publications -
BibUography. I. TiÜe.
Z2009.P45 1973 015'.42 73-16231
ISBN 0-08-017797-2
Printed in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd.. Guildford, Surrey
To My Mother and Father
List of Illustrations
UNLESS otherwise stated, the illustrations are reproduced by kind per­
mission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
FIG. 1. Roll of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 6
FIG 2. House of Commons Alphabetical List of Members 10
FIG. 3. Daily List of Government Publications 20
FIG. 4. Monthly Catalogue of Government Publications 22
FIG. 5. A nnual Catalogue of Government Publications 24
FIG. 6. Sectional List 27
FIG 7. Sessional Index 29
FIG. 8. General Alphabetical Index 1950 to 1958-59 30
FIG. 9, Hansard's Catalogue and Breviate of Parliamentary Papers 1696- 33
1834. (By kind permission of Basil BlackweU and Mott Ltd.)
FIG. 10. Ford, P. and Ford, G., Breviate of Parliamentary Papers 1940-1954. 35
(By kind permission of Basil BlackweU and Mott Ltd.)
FIG. 11. Ford, P. and Ford, G., Select List of British Parliamentary Papers 36
1833-1899. (By kind permission of Basil BlackweU and Mott Ltd.)
FIG. 12. Morgan, A. Mary, British Government Publications: an index to 39
chairmen and authors 1941-1966. (By kind permission of the
Library Association.)
FIG. 13. Division List 45
FIG. 14. Journals of the House of Commons: General Index 1950-51 to 47
1959-60
FIG. 15. General Index to Treaty Series 1961-1964: General Treaties 67
FIG. 16, Index of British Treaties 1101-1968 68
FIG 17. OrderPaper of the House of Commons 90
FIG. 18. Public Bill List 93
xi
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. 19. Houseof Lords Minutes of Proceedings
FIG. 20. Return Relating to Public Bills
FIG. 21. List of Private Bills ^'^
FIG. 22. House of Commons Debates (Hansard): General Index 1^
FIG. 23. Royal Assent Act 1967
FIG. 24. Manchester Corporation Act 1967
FIG. 25. Public General Acts and Measures: Effect of Legislation 127
FIG. 26. Public General Acts and Measures: Index 128
FIG. 27. Index to the Statutes 134
FIG. 28. Chronological Table of the Statutes 138
FIG. 29. Index to Local and Personal Acts 1801ş947 142
FIG. 3 0. The Local and Personal A cts (Annual catalogue) 144
FIG. 31. Statutory Instruments (Annual catalogue): Numerical List 151
FIG. 32. Statutory Instruments (Annual catalogue): Classified List of Local 152
Instruments
FIG. 3 3. Monthly List of Statutory Instruments 154
FIG. 34. British Imperial Calendar and Ovil Service List 234
FIG. 35. Diplomatic Service List 238
HG. 36. Scientific Research in British Universities and Colleges 247
FIG. 37. Annual Abstract of Statistics 251
Preface to the Second Edition
For this second edition the text has been revised and updated to take
account both of institutional changes, such as the replacement of the
National Assembly of the Church of England by the General Synod and
the creation of new administrative tribunals like the Value Added Tax
Tribunals, and of major new works such as M. F. Bond's Guide to the
Records of Parliament and India: the Transfer of Power, The lists of Royal
Commissions, Departmental Committees, Working Parties and Tribunals of
Inquiry have been extended to 1972. So too have the various series of
publications, for example Studies in Official Statistics and Public Record
Office Handbooks, The guides to further reading which occur throughout
the text have similarly been revised as regards new editions and augmented
as regards significant new works which have been published in the inter­
vening period. Recent developments have also necessitated the replace­
ment of several facsimile reproductions of specimen pages from key refer­
ence publications.
An entirely new chapter on non-H.M.S.O. publications has been added,
since this important body of literature is increasing in volume and presents
parricular problems of access. At the same time the chapter on official
publications relating to science, technology and medicine has been deleted,
with patents being taken into the new chapter and other materials being
covered elsewhere.
My indebtedness to numerous government departments, and in par­
ticular to Her Majesty's Stationery Office, continues to increase. I cannot
recall an occasion when the response to my requests for information has
not been both courteous and extremely efficient. I also wish to thank Mrs
Yvonne Hancock, Statistics Librarian of the University of Warwick, for her
Xiv PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
valuable comments on the statistics chapter, and to Mrs. Elizabeth Anker,
British Official Publications Librarian at Warwick, for considerable bibUo-
graphical assistance during the course of this revision.
Buckingham John Ĺ. Pemberton.
September, 1973
CHAPTER 1
British Parliamentary Government
THE CONSTITUTION
There is no single document which contains the text of the British
Constitution. It is embodied in the statute law and the records of judicial
decisions, and in accepted custom and tradition of which written evidence
must be sought in a variety of offícial and quasi-offícial publications.
The actual scope of constitutional law cannot be stated in precise
terms; certainly there is an undisputed hard core of essential topics - rule
of law, separation of powers, parliamentary supremacy, and so forth -
but, as an examination of the texbooks clearly reveals, the borders of the
subject are ill defined. F. W. Maitland said that "the demarcation of the
province of constitutional law is with us a matter of inconvenience" {Con­
stitutional History, 1908), and the distinguished constitutional lawyer A.
V. Dicey felt obliged to explain in his standard treatise The Law of the
Constitution (1885), that "before commenting on the law of constitution
[the English commentator or lecturer] must make up his mind what is the
nature and extent of English constitutional law".
Unmistakably, the traditionalist view of constitutional law, which has
been restricted to the consideration of statute law and judicial decisions, is
now giving way to a new and wider interpretation under the impetus of
Geoffrey Wilson's Cases and Materials on Constitutional and Adminis­
trative law (1966). According to Wilson, "unless ... the use of materials
other than law reports and decided cases [is] taken for granted, it is
impossible to present constitutional law as a coherent subject or relate it in
a meaningful way to the functions it has to fulfil or the social and political
context in which it has to operate". His collection of materials represents
the nearest approach that has yet been made to a written statement of the
British Constitution. It draws not only upon statutes and law reports but
2 BRITISH OFFICIAL PUBLICAΉONS
also upon such documents as White Papers; the reports of Royal Com­
missions, Select Committees and Inquiries; Official Reports of Debates in
the House of Lords and the House of Commons; and even Answers to
Parliamentary Questions.
The significance of Wilson's work to those who wish to become in­
formed on all facets of the British Constitution is that they must acquaint
themselves with a considerably wider range of official materials than has
hitherto been regarded as sufficient - and all of these sources are des­
cribed in the present volume.
As reliable texts on constitutional law the following can be
recommended:
BAGEHOT, W., The English Constitution (rev. edn. 1873, etc.).
DICEY, A. v., Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Con­
stitution {\Oth Edn. 1959).
JENNINGS, Sir IVOR, The British Constitution (5th edn. 1966).
MAITLAND, F. W., Constitutional History of England (1908).
MITCHELL, J. D. B., Constitutional Law (2nd edn. 1968).
PHILLIPS, 0. HOOD, Constitutional and Administrative Law (4th
edn. 1967).
WADE, E. C. S. and PHILLIPS, G. G., Constitutional Law (8th edn.
1970).
WILSON, GEOFFREY, Cases and Materials on Constitutional and
Administrative Law (1966).
Notwithstanding the varying interpretations of the limits of their sub­
ject^ all these works agree that the fundamental principle of the British
Constitution is the supremacy of Parliament in the making of laws.
SUPREMACY OF PARLIAMENT
The Pariiament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland consists of the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the House of
Commons - each having its own rights and privileges. Together, these
three elements constitute the legislature which can legislate for the whole
of the United Kingdom, for any part of it or any combination of its parts.
It can also legislate for the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, though
these are Crown dependencies and not part of the United Kingdom.
BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT 3
Under the terms of the Parliament Act, 1911, the Ufe of a Parliament is
five years, though it may be dissolved before the full term has expired. The
period is divided into sessions, each normally lasting for a year and running
from November to October. This accounts for the fact that certain
categories of Parliamentary Papers which will be described later are known
as Sessional Papers.
Unlike the legislative assemblies of those countries which have written
constitutions, the British Parliament is not subject to any legal restraints.
During its life each assembly can legislate on any matter without hind­
rance. An official pamphlet on Tlte British Parliament (Central Office of
Information, HAl.S.O., new edn. 1971) describes its position as follows:
... [I]t can make and unmake any law whatsoever; it can legalise past
illegalities and make void and punishable what was lawful when done, and thus
reverse the decisions of the ordinaiy law courts; it can destroy the most firmly
established convention or turn a convention into binding law; and it has power
to prolong its own life beyond the normal period of five years without con­
sulting the electorate.
Having thus described the extent of Pariiament's sovereignty, how­
ever, it goes on to add that
In practice, Pariiament does not assert its supremacy in this way. Its mem­
bers bear in mind the common law which has grown up in Britain througji the
centuries, and they act as far as possible in accordance with precedent and
tradition. Moreover, both Houses are sensitive to public opinion and although
the validity of an Act of Pariiament that has been duly passed, legally promul­
gated and published by the proper authority cannot be disputed in the law
courts, no Parliament would be likely to pass an Act which it knew would
receive no public support. The system of party government in Britain ensures
that Parliament legislates with its responsibility to the electorate in mind.
POWERS OF THE CROWN
In the British Constitution the Monarchy has no direct authority; its
powers are exercised by the Sovereign on the advice of her Ministers or by
those Ministers in the Sovereign's name, and the device employed for
carrying them into effect is known as the royal prerogative. There are in
fact several prerogatives, the two principal being the personal and the
political. The latter is the means whereby Parliament is summoned, pro­
rogued and dissolved; by which Ministers, archbishops and bishops are
appointed and peers created. In practice, these activities are performed
through the issuance of instruments such as Orders in Council, warrants.