Everything about Hansard totally explained
Hansard is the traditional name for the printed
transcripts of
parliamentary debates in the
Westminster system of
government. In addition to the
Parliament of the United Kingdom and the UK's devolved institutions, a Hansard is maintained for the
Parliament of Canada and the Canadian provincial legislatures, the
Parliament of Australia and the Australian state parliaments, the national
Parliament of South Africa and South Africa's provincial legislatures, the
Parliament of New Zealand, the
Legislative Council of Hong Kong, the
Parliament of Malaysia, the
Parliament of Singapore, the
Legislative Council of Brunei, the
Parliament of Sri Lanka, the
Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, the
National Assembly of Kenya, and the
Parliament of Jamaica.
Origins
Before 1771, the British Parliament had long been a highly secretive body. The official record of the actions of the House were publicly available, but there was no such record of debates. The publication of remarks made in the House became a breach of Parliamentary privilege, punishable by the two Houses. As more people became interested in parliamentary
debates, more individuals published unofficial accounts of parliamentary debates. Editors were at worst subjected to fines. Several editors used the device of veiling parliamentary debates as debates of fictitious societies or bodies. The names under which parliamentary debates were published include
Proceedings of the Lower Room of the Robin Hood Society and
Debates of the Senate of Magna Lilliputia.
In 1771
Brass Crosby, who was
Lord Mayor of the City of London had brought before him a printer called Miller who dared publish reports of Parliamentary proceedings. He released the man, but was subsequently ordered to appear before the House to explain his actions. Crosby was committed to the
Tower of London, but when brought to trial several judges refused to hear the case and after protests from the public Crosby was released.
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Parliament ceased to punish the publishing of its debates, partly due to the campaigns of
John Wilkes on the behalf of free speech. There then began several attempts to publish reports of debates. Among the early successes, the
Parliamentary Register published by John Almon and John Debrett began in
1775 and ran until
1813.
William Cobbett, a noted radical and publisher began publishing
Parliamentary Debates as a supplement to his
Political Register in
1802, eventually extending his reach back with the
Parliamentary History. Cobbett's reports were printed by
Thomas Curson Hansard from
1809; in
1812, with his business suffering, Cobbett sold the
Debates to Hansard. From
1829 the name "Hansard" appeared on the title page of each issue.
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Neither Cobbett nor Hansard ever employed anyone to take down notes of the debates, which were taken from a multiplicity of sources in the morning newspapers. For this reason, early editions of
Hansard are not to be absolutely relied upon as a guide to everything discussed in Parliament.
Hansard was remarkably successful in seeing off competition such as Almon and Debrett, and the later
Mirror of Parliament published by J.H. Barrow from
1828 to
1843; Barrow's work was more comprehensive but he checked each speech with the Member and allowed them to 'correct' anything they wished they hadn't said. The last attempt at a commercial rival was
The Times which published debates in the
1880s. In
1889, the House decided to subsidise Hansard's publication so that a permanent record was available and it included more speeches and a near-verbatim record of front-bench speeches.
The
Hansard of today, a fully comprehensive account of every speech, began in
1909 when
Parliament took over the publication. At the same time the decision was made to publish debates of the two houses in separate volumes, and to change the front cover from orange-red to light blue. A larger page format was introduced with new technology in
1980.
Hansard in the United Kingdom
Hansard isn't a verbatim account of debates in Parliament. It seeks to eliminate "repetitions, redundancies and obvious errors". One instance of such an eliminated redundancy involves the calling of members in the House of Commons. In that House, the Speaker must call on a member by name before that member may speak, but
Hansard makes no mention of the recognition accorded by the Speaker. Also,
Hansard sometimes adds extraneous material to make the remarks less ambiguous. For example, though members refer to each other as "the hon. Member for
Constituency Name" rather than by name,
Hansard adds, in parentheses, the name of the member being referred to, the first time that Member is referred to in a speech or debate. When a Member simply points at another whose constituency he can't remember,
Hansard identifies them.
Interjections from seated members generally are only included if the member who is speaking at the time refers to it. Any interruption to debate, whether from the member being shouted down or the physical invasion of the chamber, will be marked with the word "(Interruption)".
Hansard also publishes written answers made by Government ministers in response to questions formally posed by members. Since 1909 — and for important votes before then —
Hansard has listed how members have voted in
divisions. Furthermore, the proceedings and debates in committee are also published in separate volumes.
For many years
Hansard didn't formally acknowledge the existence of parties in the House, except obliquely, with Members' references to other Members of the same party as "hon. Friends", but in
2003 this changed and members' party affiliations are now identified.
The Internet, with the help of volunteers, has made the UK
Hansard more accessible. The UK
Hansard is currently being digitised to a high-level
XML format for on-line publication. It is possible to review and search the UK
Hansard from June 2001, with the exception of Standing Committees. It is also possible to set up key word email alerts for topics of interest or to receive emails whenever a given MP speaks in the Commons or receives an answer to a written question. Online
Hansard often provides links to
wikipedia on some topics, phrases and names.
Parliamentary privilege
In
1839, Hansard, by order of the
House of Commons, printed and published a report stating that an
indecent book published by a Mr. Stockdale was circulating in
Newgate Prison. Stockdale sued for
defamation but Hansard’s defence, that the statement was true, succeeded. On publication of a reprint, Stockdale sued again but Hansard was ordered by the House to plead that he'd acted under order of the Commons and was protected by
parliamentary privilege. In the resulting case of
Stockdale v. Hansard the court found that the House held no privilege to order publication of defamatory material. In consequence, parliament passed the
Parliamentary Papers Act 1840 to establish privilege for publications under the House's authority.
Hansard in Canada
House of Commons Differences from U.K. practice
As with the Westminster
Hansard, the Canadian version isn't strictly verbatim, and is guided by the principle of avoiding "repetitions, redundancies and obvious errors." Unlike the UK House of Commons, members are referred to in the House only by the parliamentary ridings they represent ("The member for Burnaby-Douglas," etc.) or by their cabinet post.
Hansard supplies an affiliation the first time each member speaks in the House on a particular day — "
Mr. Bill Siksay (Burnaby—Douglas, NDP)" or "
Hon. Keith Martin (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, Lib.)" — and by name only when they rise later to speak.
If interjections give rise to a call for order by the Speaker, they're reported as "
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!" The details of the approval or negativing of motions and bills are reported in rather baroque detail:
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The Acting Speaker (Mr. Marcel Proulx): The House has heard the terms of the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
Some hon. members: No.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Marcel Proulx): All those in favour of the motion will please say yea.
Some hon. members: Yea.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Marcel Proulx): All those opposed will please say nay.
Some hon. members: Nay.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Marcel Proulx): In my opinion the nays have it.
And more than five members having risen:
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Marcel Proulx): Call in the members.
And the bells having rung:
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Marcel Proulx): A recorded division on the motion stands deferred until tomorrow at the end of government orders. |
Machine translation
Given the
bilingual nature of the Canadian federal government, two equivalent Canadian Hansards are maintained, one in
French and one in
English. This makes it a natural
parallel text, and it's often used to train French-English
machine translation programs. In addition to being already translated and aligned, the size of the Hansards and the fact new material is always being added makes it an attractive
corpus. However, its usefulness is hindered by the fact that the translations, although accurate in meaning, are not always literally exact.
The Canadian Hansard records makes note of the language used by the members of parliament, so as not to misinterpret the words of the person who has the floor. If the member speaks in French, the English Hansard records would state that the member spoke in French and refer the reader to the French Hansard record.
In one instance, during a
Liberal filibuster in the
Canadian Senate, Senator
Philippe Gigantès was accused of reading one of his books only so that he could get the translation for free through the Hansard.
British Columbia Hansard practice
Unlike the Ottawa
Hansard, each Member of the Legislative Assembly is identified only by initial and last name in the printed
Hansard for an opposition member or a government backbencher: "
J. Horgan." Current cabinet ministers have their names prefaced with "Honourable": "
Hon. S. Hagen."
Interjections giving rise to a call for order by the Speaker are reported only as "Interjection." Other interjections are reported as spoken if they're clearly audible and if they're responded to in some way by the member who has the floor. While the details of approval or negativing of motions and bills closely parallel the House of Commons, the reporting is simplified to a style line ("Motion approved" or "Motion negatived."
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