[3] The committee was appointed on 2 November 1796, consisting of 11 members with a quorum of five and the power to "send for persons, papers, and records".
They noted that promulgation was limited to around 1,100 volumes annually, distributed to members of each house of parliament, the privy council and some of the great offices of state.
[7] The committee noted that, in the annual volume of the statutes, local acts declared to be public (for example drainage, bridges, churches, canals etc.)
[7] This would allow for distribution of volumes of reduced size to increase from 1,100 to 3,500, at the same cost as before, allowing for copies to be promulgated to more courts of England and Wales and courts of Scotland, deposit libraries, the four Inns of Court, English and Scottish universities, the Register Office for Scotland, the sheriffs of the 85 counties, the 106 commissions of the peace, the Chief Magistrate or head officer of each city, borough, town corporate etc., resident justices of the peace of the 56 counties, ridings or divisions, and the 17 inferior jurisdictions, of England and Wales and each of the 32 counties and single stewartry of Scotland, and other custos rotulorum.
The committee recommend promulgating the private acts to the house of parliament, recognising the volume and cost of wider distribution.
[7] The committee laid down requirements which every bill ought to be introduced, emphasising the importance prompt and regular printing, of punctuation, numbered sections, marginal notes and stating precisely the duration of temporary acts and commencement dates.
[4] The message was presented by the Lord President of the Council, John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, and Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, James Stopford, 3rd Earl of Courtown, Lord Charles Henry Somerset, Dudley Ryder MP and the Master of the Rolls, Sir Richard Arden MP, to the King on 15 June 1797, who issued immediate directions.
[2] In 1806, the Commission on Public Records passed a resolution requesting the production of a report on the best mode of reducing the volume of the statute book.