The Parliamentary Papers Act 1840 (3 & 4 Vict c 9) is an
Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
. The Act was passed in response to the case of ''
Stockdale v Hansard'' where it was held that the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
enjoyed no
privilege as to publications under its authority circulated beyond
Members of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
.
Provisions
The Act provides that:
*Publications under the House's authority enjoy
absolute privilege
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
against civil or criminal proceedings (s.1);
*Correct copies of such publications also enjoy absolute privilege (s.2);
*Extracts are protected by
qualified privilege
The defence of qualified privilege permits a person in a position of authority or trust to make statements or relay or report statements that would be considered slander and libel if made by anyone else. In New Zealand and Ontario, for instance, ...
. The
burden of proof is on the defendant to show that the publication was without
malice (s.3).
Publication for circulation among Members of Parliament is protected by absolute privilege under
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
.
[''Lake v. King'' (1667) 1 Saunders 131.] The Act received
Royal Assent
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...
on 14 April 1840.
The Act is notable by being ''
ex post facto'' – it changes the legal status of happenings before the Act was passed. As such, it is a precedent showing that Parliament has sovereignty over the past as well as the future.
See also
*
Defamation Act 1952
The Defamation Act 1952 (15 & 16 Geo 6 & 1 Eliz 2 c 66) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
This Act implemented recommendations contained in the Report of the Porter Committee. The recommendation made by the Committee in relatio ...
, s.9(1)
*
Broadcasting Act 1990
The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, initiated in part due to a 1989 European Council Directive (89/552), also known as the Television Without Frontiers directive. The aim of the Act was to liberalise and deregulate the B ...
, s.203(1)
References
Bibliography
Text of the Parliamentary Papers Act, without amendments*
*A Collection of the Public General Statutes passed in the Third and Fourth Year of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, 1840. Printed by George E Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode, printers to the Queen's most excellent majesty. London. 1840. Page
99to 100.
*
{{UK legislation
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1840
United Kingdom public law