OSCOLA referencing guide (Online)

A command paper is a document issued by the UK Government and presented to Parliament.

White papers, green papers, treaties, government responses, draft bills, reports from Royal Commissions, reports from independent inquiries and various government organisations can be released as command papers, so called because they are presented to Parliament formally "By Her Majesty's Command".

To reference information from a Command Paper, you need to include the Author and the title in italics, followed by the Command paper number and year in brackets.

Format: Author, Title (Command Paper number, year)

Example: Secretary of State for the Home Department, Identity Cards: The Next Steps (Cm 6020, 2003).

Be careful to note the abbreviation for a Command Paper as shown on its title page. There have been seven series of Command Papers and each series has its own unique abbreviation.

There is no change in format between a footnote reference and a bibliography entry.