Reviewed:
March 21st, 1997
By:
Catherine Sladen
Reading the speeches made by our elected officers in the two chambers of parliament doesn't sound too thrilling and reading them full text on screen isn't most peoples idea of fun. However, in the current political climate, interest in the political process will no doubt increase and for a non-partisan view of parliament, the Hansard website is entirely accessible.
Simply presented, although at times it takes too many clicks to reach the full text, Hansard is divided into the House of Commons Debates and the House of Lords Debates. The distinction between the two is not entirely clear and there is no home page for Hansard as such, rather a link from the Stationery Office's (formerly HMSO) pages. Nevertheless, the search mechanism allows the user to search across all documents published by parliament or individual publications such as the House of Commons Debates or Bills. The results are returned in a clear and useful format with a thermometer indicating the relevance of the particular result. It is also possible to browse Hansard at each level of the index, ie by date, by subject matter or by search category (for the House of Lords).
Screen shot of the Hansard House of Commons Debates proceedings menu
As the site is part of the Stationery Office, there are direct links to ordering publications as well as information on who to contact with enquiries (including email). Links to the UK parliament's homepage and the composition of the both chambers provide useful complementary information.
In all this site provides a useful service, it is presented in a clear way, uncluttered by graphics and gimmicks. For the student of politics or the casual observer, this would certainly be preferable to thumbing through the weighty volumes of the printed version which may not even be available (for some) as promptly as the on-line version.
Reviewed by:
Catherine Sladen
biz/ed Research Officer
Institute for Learning and Research Technology
University of Bristol
Email: catherine.sladen@bristol.ac.uk
Tel: 0117 928 8443
Material on this page is copyright Ariadne/original authors. This article last updated/links checked on 18-May-1997