The Law Society Library offers a Parliamentary Debates Research Service which can research a section of an Act or Bill to help understand what parliament intended by that section.
The librarians track the progress of the clause as it goes through parliament checking the various versions of the Bills to see if there have been any changes and research what was reported in the House of Commons, Lords Hansard debates and Standing Committee or Public Bill debates.
A detailed report of the findings and copies of all relevant material are provided. The service cost £300 + VAT per section.
For more details contact the Law Society Library on 0870 606 2511 or email library@lawsociety.org.uk
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Comments (1)
Lissa Allcock said
at 9:45 am on Apr 29, 2010
The Guildhall Library's Focus Research in the City's service can also do this kind of research, though their collection is not as comprehensive as that at the Law Society.
If you are researching Finance Bills the Library at the Chartered Institute of Taxation has the HM Treasury Explanatory Notes to Finance Bills (date range unknown, but should be from at least 1936. HMRC apply a 30+1 year restriction to these, so in 2010 only those to 1979 are available). These are an excellent source of information on what government intended the legislation to achieve.
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