Almost without exception, the papers are concerned with Lord Weir's public life and with the period after 1918. As the earliest papers have been affected by water, it is possible that those before 1918 were lost in this way. The omission of any private papers is the result of efficient organisation of the files in the past. Since all the files are public and political, they have been arranged according to subject and then chronologically in 24 sections.

In the absence of minutes, Lord Weir's correspondence usually provides the best guide to the conduct of his different activities. There are also usually a large number of papers giving Lord Weir's thoughts and impressions about the subject and about evidence presented to committees. These are in two forms - in manuscript and typewritten. The former are written on pads (made up at his works) of an unusually long and thin size. The latter are normally on quarto paper and in several copies - often amended by Lord Weir. The reports too usually survive in several typescript and printed versions.