SECOND REPORT
The Administration Committee has agreed to the
following Report:—
RECORD COPIES OF ACTS
1. At its meeting on 18 May, the Administration Committee
considered a paper submitted by the Clerk of the House (see Appendix),
seeking the Committee's views on proposals that record copies
of public Acts should be preserved on archival paper, rather than
on vellum, and that the practice of depositing duplicate copies
of public and private Acts at the Public Record Office should
be ended.
2. The Clerk put forward four arguments in support
of his proposals:
samples of the record copies of the Private Acts
deposited in the Lords' Record Office from 1956 have been tested
and reveal no deterioration in the archival paper on which they
have been printed[1];
archival paper has the advantage of being considerably
less bulky and easier to handle than vellum[2];
there would be substantial savings to public funds
from such a change[3];
and
the use of vellum is a specialised form of printing
which few printers are equipped to carry out, and which probably
even fewer would be prepared to take on[4].
3. The Committee was convinced by the arguments above,
and noting the agreement of the Master of the Rolls and of the
Public Record Office[5],
therefore recommends:
that from the first chapter of the year 2000 the
record copy of public Acts preserved in the House of Lords Record
Office should be preserved on archival paper and not on vellum,
and both private and public Acts should have archival paper covers;
and
that the deposit of duplicate record copies of
both public and private Acts at the Public Record Office should
be ended, with effect from the same date.
4. As the current arrangements were provided for
in Resolutions passed by both Houses in 1849, it is necessary
for both Houses to amend or supersede them. The Committee therefore
submits this Report to the House for its approval, as a basis
for an amending Resolution. Similar, and parallel, procedures
are taking place in the House of Lords.
1 Appendix, para 5 Back
2 ibid,
para 6 Back
3 ibid,
paras 7 and 9 Back
4 ibid,
para 8 Back
5 Letters
to the Clerk of the Parliaments from the Master of the Rolls (7
May) and from the Keeper of Public Records (18 May). (Not reported). Back
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