VPRS 8841 Inquiry Files

Full description

This series comprises the documentation collected or created by the Legal and Constitutional Committee (VA 3141) in the course of inquiries held on issues concerned with legal, constitutional or parliamentary reform, the administration of justice and subordinate legislation.

A range of documents was either created or collected by the Committee in the course of each inquiry. Although the range of documents captured during each inquiry will vary, the following broad categories of documents are common:

Background papers comprising copies of printed material, reports etc gathered by the Committee in the course of initial research about the body to be reviewed.

Correspondence files relating to either the actual investigation or organisational aspects of the inquiry.

Submissions tendered by individuals or organisations during the investigation stating their views on the issues concerned. Some submissions were also received in response to public hearings or issue of the final report.

Transcripts of public hearings which must be held as part of each inquiry. Copies of the transcripts, which were forwarded to the various participants for amendments or corrections, are also included.

Reports including the final printed copy as presented to Parliament containing the Committee's findings and recommendations and reports made by consultants for the Committee.

This series also contains reports and associated documentation relating to the Committee's role in the review of subordinate legislation. These are mostly located in the P3 consignment. Some of these records also contain documents which predate the establishment of the Legal and Constitutional Committee.

The P3 consignment also contains minutes of meetings for both the full committee and the Subordinate Legislation Sub-Committee. As matters under discussion in these minutes are almost exclusively inquires or subordinate legislation reviews, they were included in this series.