An official publication is a publication issued by an organisation that may be considered an official body, and then made available to the public. This includes Command Papers, White and Green papers, relevant treaties, government responses to select committee reports, Law Commission Reports and Hansard.
These sources should be included in your footnotes and your structured bibliography. Sometimes there is no personal author so the organisation is deemed to be the corporate author.
The author could be a government department or role.
Footnote Format:
Author, Title (Command Paper number, year) pinpoints as required
Footnote examples:
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, The Rough Sleeping Strategy (Cm 9685, 2018) ch 4.
Department for International Development, Eliminating World Poverty: Building our Common Future (White Paper, Cm 7656, 2009) ch 5.
Take care to note the abbreviation for a Command Paper as shown on its title page. There have been six series of Command Papers and each series has its own unique abbreviation.
The abbreviation preceding a command paper number depends on the year of publication:
1833–69 (C (1st series)
1870–99 (C (2nd series)
1900–18 (Cd)
1919–56 (Cmd)
1957–86 (Cmnd)
1986– (Cm)
Bibliography
In the bibliography, list Command Papers alphabetically by author in Secondary Sources. The format is the same as the footnote but without the full stop at the end.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, The Rough Sleeping Strategy (Cm 9685, 2018)
Department for International Development, Eliminating World Poverty: Building our Common Future (White Paper, Cm 7656, 2009)
To create a reference to a Select Committee Report, use the name of the committee, followed by the name of the report in italics and either HC or HL in brackets. You then need the years of Parliament session and the serial number of the report, the session and after a comma the paper number and volume number (the latter in roman numerals). This you can find on the bottom of the reports title page. For reports of joint committees, cite both the House of Lords and House of Commons paper numbers.
To pinpoint paragraphs, use para or paras before the numbers.
Footnote Examples:
Defence Select Committee, Iraq: An Initial Assessment of Post-conflict Operations (HC 2004-05 65-I) paras 85-91.
Joint Committee on Human Rights, Legislative Scrutiny: Equality Bill (second report); Digital Economy Bill (2009–10, HL 73, HC 425) 14–16.
Bibliography:
Do not include the full stop at the end of the reference, pinpoints should not be used in the bibliography.
Footnote Format:
Law Commission, Report Title in italics (Law Commission report number, year) paragraph number.
Footnote Examples:
Law Commission, Simplification of the Immigration Rules (Law Com No 242, 2019) para 6.1.
Law Commission, Reforming Bribery (Law Com No 313, 2008) paras 3.12-3.17.
Bibliography:
Do not include the full stop at the end of the reference, pinpoints should not be used in the bibliography.
References to Parliamentary debates (Hansard) should include the House abbreviation. If the entry is House of Commons (HC) or House of Lords (HL). This is followed by 'Deb' for debate, the date, volume, and common number.
If you are referring to a written answer in the House of Commons put a 'W' after the column number. if you are referring to a written answer in the House of Lords put 'WA' before the column number.
Footnote format:
HC OR HL Deb Date, Vol, Col.
Footnote Examples:
HC Deb 16 June 2020, vol 677, col 705W.
HL Deb 20 March 2018, vol 790, col WA234.
The above format applies to both online and printed versions.
Bibliography:
Do not include the full stop at the end of the reference, pinpoints should not be used in the bibliography.