Hansard
Hansard is the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printer to the Parliament at Westminster.
For other uses, see Hansard (disambiguation).Origins[edit]
Though the history of the Hansard began in the British parliament, each of Britain's colonies developed a separate and distinctive history. Before 1771, the British Parliament had long been a highly secretive body. The official record of the actions of the House was publicly available but there was no record of the debates. The publication of remarks made in the House became a breach of parliamentary privilege, punishable by the two Houses of Parliament. As the populace became interested in parliamentary debates, more independent newspapers began publishing unofficial accounts of them. The many penalties implemented by the government, including fines, dismissal, imprisonment, and investigations, are reflective of "the difficulties faced by independent newspapermen who took an interest in the development of Upper Canada, and who, in varying degrees, attempted to educate the populace to the shortcomings of their rulers".[1]
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.[2] The Senate of Magna Lilliputia was printed in Edward Cave's The Gentleman's Magazine, which was first published in 1732. The names of the speakers were carefully "filleted"; for example, Sir Robert Walpole was thinly disguised as "Sr. R―t W―le".[3]
In 1771, Brass Crosby, who was Lord Mayor of the City of London, had brought before him a printer by the name of John 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 he was brought to trial, several judges refused to hear the case and after protests from the public, Crosby was released.[4] Parliament ceased to punish the publishing of its debates as harshly, partly due to the campaigns of John Wilkes on 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 (1763–1835), 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 avocation for the freedom of the press was severely punished by the British Government. On 5 June 1810 William Cobbett stood trial for seditious libel for an article he wrote against the British Government which was published by Thomas Curson Hansard. Cobbett was found "guilty, upon the fullest and most satisfactory evidence".[3] The court sentence read: "The court do adjudge that you, William Cobbett pay to our Lord the King a fine of £1000; that you be imprisoned in His Majesty's gaol of Newgate for the space of two years, and that at expiration of that time you enter into a recognizance to keep the peace for seven years—yourself in the sum of £3000, and two good and sufficient sureties in the sum of £1,000; and further, that you be imprisoned till that recognizance be entered into, and that fine paid".[3] The sentence was described by J. C. Trewin as "vindictive".[3] The Court argued that Thomas Curson Hansard, who had "seen the copy before it was printed, ought not to have suffered it to have been printed at all"[3] and was sentenced to three months imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison.
Cobbett's reports were printed by Thomas Curson Hansard from 1809; in 1812, Cobbett's finances ran asunder and he divested himself of his proprietorship of both the Parliamentary Debates and Parliamentary History, which then "passed into the hands of Hansard in 1812".[1] Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates became Hansard Parliamentary Debates, "abbreviated over time to the now familiar Hansard".[1] From 1829 the name "Hansard" appeared on the title page of each issue.[5] Cobbett and Hansard did not ever employ 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 outlasted competitors including 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 had not said. The last attempt at a commercial rival was The Times which published debates in the 1880s. In 1878, a subsidy was granted to the Hansard press and at that point reporters were employed.[1] Despite hiring contract reporters there were still widespread complaints about the accuracy of the debate reports. In 1889, Henry Hansard, the son of Thomas Hansard, broke the family connection with the debates.[1]
United Kingdom[edit]
The Hansard of today, a comprehensive account of every speech, began in 1909 when Parliament took over the publication and established its own staff of official Hansard reporters. 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 is not a word-for-word transcript of debates in Parliament. Its terms of reference are those set by a House of Commons select committee in 1893, as being a report which, though not strictly verbatim, is substantially the verbatim report with repetitions and redundancies omitted and with obvious mistakes (including grammatical mistakes) corrected, but which, on the other hand, leaves out nothing that adds to the meaning of the speech or illustrates the argument.[6]
One instance of such an eliminated redundancy involves the calling of MPs to speak in the House of Commons. In that house, the Speaker must call on an MP 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 MP being referred to, the first time that MP is referred to in a speech or debate. When an MP simply points at another whose constituency he or she cannot remember, Hansard identifies him or her.
Any interruption to debate will be marked with the word "(Interruption)". This understated phrase covers a variety of situations, ranging from members laughing uproariously to the physical invasion of the chamber. Interjections from seated members, such as heckling during Prime Minister's Questions, are generally only included if the member who is speaking responds to the interjection.
Hansard also publishes written answers – known as written ministerial statements – made by government ministers in response to questions formally posed by members. 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 had acted under order of the Commons and was protected by parliamentary privilege. In the resulting case of Stockdale v Hansard,[7][8] 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.[9][10][11]
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 the House of Commons Hansard did not formally acknowledge the existence of parties in the House, except obliquely, with MPs' references to other MPs of the same party as "hon. Friends", but in 2003 this changed and members' party affiliations are now identified. The Hansard of the House of Lords operates entirely independently of its Commons counterpart, but with similar terms of reference. It covers parliamentary business in the House of Lords chamber itself, as well as the debates in the Moses Room, known as Grand Committee. Parliamentary written answers and statements are also printed. Emma Crewe notes that "Editors view reporters in general as a hive of revolution and anti-establishment attitudes, while they perceive themselves as calm and uncomplaining".[12] 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 format for on-line publication. It is possible to review and search the UK Hansard from 1803, with the exception of standing committees.[13][14]
Because Hansard is treated as accurate, there is a parliamentary convention whereby if a member of Parliament makes an inaccurate statement in Parliament, they must write a correction in the copy of Hansard kept in the House of Commons library.
In 2010, historic copies of Hansard were sent to India in its original volume format and was transformed from the original bound versions into plain text by optical character recognition (OCR) and put on the Internet to enable easy research. In July 2018 this digitised Hansard was vastly improved and merged with the rest of Hansard as previously it was available under two websites and now it is a single website. There are still many 'typos' from the OCR process but readers are encouraged to report them when they are spotted.
Australia[edit]
The Parliament of Australia also keeps record of debates, using the term Hansard.[25][26] The records are published by the State Law Publisher.[27] The Parliament of South Australia was the first Australian parliament to use Hansard; where it became a convention from 1857.
The Parliament of Victoria followed the lead of South Australia by introducing the use of Hansard in 1866.[28] The Parliament of New South Wales commenced its Hansard system on 28 October 1879 with the reporting of the Legislative Council at the opening of the Third Session of the Ninth Parliament.[29] In Tasmania, Hansard was not introduced until 1979, commencing on 6 June for the Legislative Council and 12 June for the House of Assembly.[30]
