The UK Parliament has two Houses that work on behalf of UK citizens to check and challenge the work of Government, make and shape effective laws, and debate/make decisions on the big issues of the day ...

The UK public elects 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent their interests and concerns in the House of Commons. MPs consider and propose new laws, and can scrutinise government policies by ...

Petition of Several Persons, Natives of America, whose Names are thereunto subscribed, against the Bill for 'An Act for better regulating the Government of the Province of The Massachusets Bay, in New ...

The problem of poverty caused growing public concern during the early 19th century. The existing system for looking after those unable to care for themselves - the old, sick, disabled, orphans and ...

In 1913 the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act was rushed through Parliament by Asquith's government in 1913; suffragettes who went on hunger strike were released from prison as soon ...

These pages were inserted before the first entry in the first House of Lords Journal when the journal was rebound in 1718. Some of them provide information relating to the history and location of ...

The issues of crime and policing were taken up by Robert Peel when he became Home Secretary in 1822. Peel and his ministerial colleagues saw the increase in criminal activity as a threat to the ...

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Unhealthy and disease-ridden living conditions in towns, particularly in the rapidly growing industrial areas, were a constant concern of Victorian legislators. In 1846 Parliament began defining what ...

Young people from Merthyr Sixth Form College pictured in Westminster Hall on their visit to the Parliamentary Archives. There were 16 members of the research group - all young people studying at ...

The level of importance placed upon preservation of the River Thames is evident in this Act from the reign of Henry VIII. It states 'If any Person do, or procure any Thing to be done, to the annoying ...

The failure to produce a reliable number of legally-qualified Members of the Lords, however, was criticised by a legal profession which now expected the House of Lords to function as a professional ...