19th June 2019, by PIO
Middle Temples Review of Pepper v Hart and Public Information Online
Searching for papers on PIO is straightforward. Title, ISBN, paper category, and corporate author are all available options for researchers, and results can be further refined by keyword or phrases within the documents. Extra features of PIO include: the Civil Service Yearbook, as well as Pepper v Hart enquiry searching. The latter facet allows users to build a collection of Official Publications in connection with a particular Bill, including Hansard and committees’ materials. The feature is similar to options on parliament.uk, whereby selecting a particular Bill from a Parliamentary session will yield a results timeline of its progress and debate. Although comparatively, the scope of information available on Public Information Online is greater, dating back to 1919.
PIO also links legislation coverage to Legislation.gov.uk, allowing users to view Acts and their amending SIs from 1988 to present. If a user searches for a specific Act on PIO they will be able to view associated papers in PDF.
Beth Flerlage (Assistant Librarian, Middle Temple Library)