Certificación

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exercise of the power of the National Judicial Council pursuant to Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, to exercise disciplinary control over judicial officers against whom an allegation of misconduct has been made.

Figure 32: Example of a Disciplinary Agency Source: Google Images

3.1.4 Other Types of Government Publications

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Other pieces of advice could warn people of the consequences of breaking the law such as with drink-drive campaigns or over-speeding or to convey detailed regulations for building for fire prevention or for health and safety or to communicate changes to legislation. The materials are usually published in form of leaflets, other documents and media campaigns.

Figure 34: Example of government advice and guidance Source: Google Images

ii. Parliamentary Business and Official Records: Official records are summary records of proceedings and therefore do not record everything said, apart from the wordings of motions. They contain information regarding members of committees, records of attendance and details of papers tabled but not printed.

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Figure 35: Example of an official record Source: Google Images

iii. Green Papers and White Papers: Once a government department has consulted on a topic and reached a view, this will be published as a White paper although this will not be how it is described on the title page. White papers are normally Command Papers and as such will be laid before parliament. White papers are policy information papers issued after a period of debate, they set out a policy that has been adopted and the philosophy and reasoning behind it. On the other hand, Green papers are policy discussion papers. They are intended to promote public debate on proposed government policy. They may give details about the policy being promoted or set out alternative courses of action and show the policy options available, for example, higher education policy discussion paper. On the other hand, these papers are not common with state governments, but have been issued at regular intervals by the Federal Government since the 1970s. Since 1978, the distinctively coloured covers are no longer used. Federal green and white papers are tabled in Parliament and are published as parliamentary papers and in plain-cover editions. It should be noted that the words green, white or policy paper do not always occur in the titles of these papers.

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Figure 36: Government Green Papers and White Papers Source: Google Images

iv. Press releases: press releases are a useful source of information as they would have been carefully written to convey a department’s view on a topic and should not be overlooked. They appear on departmental websites and through alerting services, press conferences and other avenues, they are picked up and reported on by the media.

Figure 37: Example of press releases Source: Google Images

v. Gazettes: The London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes are the UK’s official newspapers of record. These are publications which have been produced for almost 350years and record events from

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an official perspective. There are notices of insolvency, unclaimed Premium Bond numbers, buildings licensed to be used for marriages, Royal proclamations such as changes to the design of coins and much more. The gazettes have been made freely available online and this includes free access to the archive, a fascinating source of information for issues such as family history research. An RSS newsfeed means you can stay in touch with different types of notices without actually accessing the gazettes.

Gazettes are one of the public sector publications which are actively encouraging the reuse of their data and the information is available as pdfs and XML, so that they can be easily re-used. The information is covered by Crown Copyright and re-use needs to be licensed by www.london-gazette.co.uk/reuse.

Figure 38: Example of a gazette Source: Google Images

vi. Royal Commissions: the main function of Royal Commissions is to inform government. This is achieved either by gathering information to assist in the formulation of policy or by establishing the facts relating to a particular topic. Interim and final reports produced by Royal Commissions as a result of their investigations are tabled before parliament. Nearly all these reports are released as parliamentary papers.

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vii. Political Chronicles: The chronicle is a summary of events in both the Commonwealth and State Governments. For instance, the Australian journal of politics and history, published three times a year. The second issue covers the last six months of the previous year and the third issue covers the first six months of that year.

Figure 39: Example of a political chronicle Source: Google Images

4.0 CONCLUSION

The unit describes the various types of government publications published by the three arms of government, that is, the executive, legislature and judiciary. It described other documents that may be published by MDAs outside the three arms of government. The purpose of the unit is to assist you to get acquainted with the range of government publications which vary in content, nature, format and scope.

5.0 SUMMARY

In summary, this unit was designed to acquaint you with the various types of government publications. Many other government publications which are available in libraries were not discussed. However, government publications discussed include those of the executive arm (government reports, technical

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reports, research reports, government statistics, factsheets, handbooks and manuals, public papers of the President, government budget, maps and atlases, and government pamphlets); those of the legislative arm (hearings, government bills, laws, and record of proceedings and debates/congressional records); and those of the judicial arm (opinions, judicial reviews, judicial discipline &

regulations, judiciary review, court order, judicial discipline and regulations.

Other types of government publications are government advice and guidance, parliamentary business and official records, green and white papers, press releases, gazettes, royal commissions and political chronicles. All of these will assist you to appreciate the range, scope, content and format of government publications.

Self-Assignment Exercise

Briefly describe the various types of government publications produced by the executive arm of government