Lifecycle of Parliamentary Documents: United Kingdom
The Parliamentary Archives also serves as “the custodian of the record copies of digital original publications on behalf of the House of Lords and House of Commons Libraries.”[1] Documents it preserves include:
the key records which provide evidence of the deliberations, decisions and actions of the House of Commons and the House of Lords in carrying out their legislative and scrutiny functions, as well as those relating to their, and [the Parliamentary Digital Service’s], management and administrative functions, and to the physical environment in which Parliament works.[2]
The Parliamentary Archives notes that it “is a repository for records of Parliamentary provenance and relevance. It is not a reference collection relating to all aspects of Parliamentary and political history,” and it does not collect official, administrative or organizational records from MPs or peers’ offices, the government, the devolved assemblies or Scottish Parliament, party parliamentary groups, political parties, or political pressure groups.[3]
The Parliamentary Archives receives its acquisitions directly from the departments, offices, and teams of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as from the Parliamentary Digital Service.[4] It transfers physical and digital records to the Information and Records Management Service. For digital records, the Information Records and Management Service works together with the Parliamentary Digital Service to ensure a seamless flow of digital records and metadata into its archives.[5]
D. National Archives
The National Archives is a non-ministerial government department and is both the official publisher and the official archive for the government of the UK.[6] The Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office works from within the National Archives and is responsible under a Letters Patent from the monarch for managing Crown Copyright. The Controller has been responsible
for printing and publishing Acts of Parliament since 1889. [7] The Controller is also responsible under a Letters Patent for the role of Queen’s Printer, and thus “is responsible for setting the standards and overseeing the publication of certain government documents.”[8]
The Law Library of Congress
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- ↑ UK Parliament, Parliamentary Archives, Collections Development Policy ¶ 6.2 (Oct. 2020), https://perma.cc/Q8SA-PKP5.
- ↑ Id. ¶ 3.2. The selection criteria for the Parliamentary Archives is listed in ¶ 9 of this policy.
- ↑ Id. ¶ 4.2.
- ↑ Id. ¶ 3.2.
- ↑ UK Parliament, Parliamentary Archives, Collections Information Policy, supra note 52, ¶¶ 5.1 – 5.3.
- ↑ Explore, The National Archives, https://perma.cc/5TQU-ACAX. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate archives, known as the National Records of Scotland and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, respectively. Home, National Records for Scotland, https://perma.cc/62GF-3HUS; PRONI Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, NI Direct Government Services, https://perma.cc/ZA3F-4CSN.
- ↑ About Us, Legislation.gov.uk, https://perma.cc/N8TA-VKKW.
- ↑ The National Archives, Publishing: A Guide for Government Organisations, supra note 50, at 3.
