SZ/HL - House of Lords. Miscellaneous papers relating to debates, bills, select committees

SZ/HL

Series

House of Lords. Miscellaneous papers relating to debates, bills, select committees

1970-1993

11 boxes
48 files

United Kingdom. Parliament. House of Lords

SZ received a life peerage in 1971, taking the title Baron Zuckerman of Burnham Thorpe. He sat as a cross-bencher. He was introduced into the House on 20.7.71 and made his maiden speech on 26.10.71, in a debate on the United Kingdom and the European Community. His last contribution, a question on 16.2.93, was on the storage of plutonium. Between October 1971 and February 1993 SZ made some 40 speeches in the House and raised nearly as many questions. Fellow life peers who he introduced were Lord Trend (27.3.74), Lord Glenkinglas (Michael Noble, 9.5.74), and Lord Richardson (7.3.79).

From 1976 until 1984 SZ served on Sub-Committee F (Energy, Transport and Research) of the Select Committee on the European Communities and from 1978 to 1983 on Sub-Committee G (Environment). Sub-file SZ/HL/46/1 (divided into five sub-sub-files) refers to Sub-Committee F, and Sub-file SZ/HL/46/2 refers to Sub-Committee G. Sub-file SZ/HL/46/3 relates to SZ’s oral evidence to Sub-Committee I (Science and Government) given in 1981.

The files listed in this series are indicative of those areas in which SZ actively contributed to debate. Typically they include related correspondence, background papers, press-cuttings and publications, and drafts and published texts (in Hansard) of his speeches and questions. File titles listed above include the dates of debates to which SZ contributed. File SZ/HL/47 consists of copies of Hansard in which questions posed by SZ are recorded. A list of Hansard reports of SZ’s contributions to the proceedings of the House of Lords is available for consultation in the Archives Department.

The file of general correspondence consists largely of exchanges with those lobbying for or against draft legislation or amendments to existing statutes, including fellow peers. It is likely that there is a degree of overlap between the correspondence in this series and that in the files of general correspondence (SZ/GEN), particularly for the period 1984-1993.

This series also includes papers of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, "an unofficial group of members of both Houses of Parliament and British members of the European Parliament, representatives of certain scientific and technical institutions, some science-based companies and universities and polytechnics" (SZ/HL/48). SZ served as a member of its Steering Committee, and was its President, 1972-1976.