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Treaty command papers and explanatory memoranda
The responsibility for concluding treaties involving the UK lies with the Foreign Secretary.
The FCO publishes these treaties as Command Papers and Explanatory Memoranda (EM).
Command Papers – which include a variety of documents, not just treaties – are prepared by the Government and presented to Parliament.
The name Command stems from the presentation process: in the official language the documents are "presented to Parliament by command of Her/His Majesty".
Our website lists Treaty Command Papers published since January 1997 and, where relevant, the accompanying EM. You can view them:
- in publication date order
- alphabetically by subject
Explanatory Memoranda are all in date order.
We are aware that certain of these PDFs are failing to load. We hope to rectify the situation shortly.
Treaty Command Papers by date
Browse through our treaty command papers by date.
Explanatory Memoranda
Browse through our explanatory memoranda which support our treaty command papers.
Treaty Command Papers by subject
Browse through our treaty command papers by subject.