Green Paper / White Paper
Why does the Government issue a Green Paper to discuss and idea followed by a White Paper showing an intent to pass a law? Were the proposals orriginally drafted onto green and white paper to show the difference? If so, is this still done? If not, when did the practise cease and why?
5freemen Thurs 24/04/08 16:17
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A Green Paper is just what you suggest, a discussion document. After the discussions and if they decide to follow it up, the Government will then produce a White Paper, which is the opening stages of something passing into law.
And yes, they are called green and white because they are those colours (Or certainly were)
There's a little bit here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_paper
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I believe the 'green' element refers to the colour of the cover rather than the pages within. A green paper is generally a fairly substantial document - for general discusion across the country - which requires a cover to hold it all together.
A white paper, on the other hand, is usually brief and much more succinct, as it outlines a definite policy the government is intent on pushing ahead with. It does not require a cover and the paper it is printed on is, of course, white.
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Having written "I believe..." as the introduction to my response above, I decided that I really needed to look further into this matter. The fact is that I have believed just that for many years, but have no idea where I originally got the notion from.
If you click here, the link will take you to a website and, once there, if you scroll down to about the middle of the page, you will see a sentence which reads, "Unsurprisingly, it is printed on pale green paper."
I have no idea how authoritative that site is, but it certainly seems that there is someone else who - like SeaJayPea above - believes the actual paper itself is green.
Perhaps you can do some Googling yourself, 5freemen...I'd certainly like to get the answer absolutely definitively. Cheers
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