British Parliamentary Papers

Command Papers comprise a distinct category of Sessional Papers. They are documents which are not originated by Parliament but are presented to Parliament "by command of His/Her Majesty" (actually, by the ministers of the Government). Those command papers which are statements of government policy are often called "white papers". Other command papers relay information possessed by the Government to Parliament and are often reports of a study or program, or a proposal for Parliament's consideration. Command papers include reports of royal commissions and departmental committees, policy papers, the Treaty series and other state papers.  In earlier years they were unnumbered and usually printed in, or as appendices to the Journal of the House of Commons.  But since 1833 they have been published as part of the Parliamentary papers with a separate numbering system that is not tied to a year or a session.

Command Papers are numbered consecutively, theoretically to 9999, in series as follows:

• 1 -4222 1833-1869
• C.1 - C.9550 1870-1899
• Cd.1 - Cd.9239 1900-1918
• Cmd.1 - Cmd.9889 1919-1956
• Cmnd.1 - Cmnd. 9927 1957-1985/86
• Cm. 1 - 1986/87-

All Command Papers except those in the first series (1833-1869) have their numbers printed on the title pages in the lower left-hand corner. Command Papers were presented to Parliament before 1833 but it was at that time that they started being printed officially and the numbering of them began.

At the present time, Command Papers are included only in the Sessional Papers for the House of Commons, although they are presented to both houses.

Command Papers are scattered throughout the volumes of the bound Sessional Papers in the Perkins stacks and in the microprint edition in the Newspapers/Microforms Department. From 1979/80 command papers are a separate set of microfiche, also in the Newspapers/Microforms Department. (S285)

If the date of a command paper is known but not its number, use the index to the particular session indicated by the date to locate the correct volume and page.* If neither the date nor the command paper number is known, use the general indexes to the Sessional Papers . If only the command paper number is known, you may use:

DiRoma, Edward. Numerical Finding List of British Command Papers Published 1833-1961/62 or Elizabeth MacBride's supplement to 1976/77. PL Ref. Z2009.D5 1987 and suppl.

For 1951-1984 Command Papers, use  HMSO Government Publications  PL Ref.  Z2009.G744

* NOTE: In all of the indexes to the Sessional Papers the page number refers to the page number of the official House of Commons library volumes. Since 1918, with few exceptions (most notably the papers for 1948/49), the bound volumes in the Perkins stacks have not been consecutively numbered by page. Therefore, the best way to locate a specific command paper within a volume is to check the table of contents (if there is one) to ascertain the approximate location in the volume. If there is no table of contents, then leafing through the volume is necessary. Usually papers in each volume are arranged in alphabetical order by title.