Hansard are the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates. This helps us keep records of how items are dicussed one after another with everyword spoken by particular speaker recorded.
Our current repository of hansards contain two entries from the prvious year's parliamentary sitting. The list will continue to grow as we digitise our content for the web.
Click on the link below to read the content of the hansard
Introduction of hansard Department
The Hansard is the Office report of the Parliamentary Debates. It is an edited, verbatim report in the first person of all speakers alike, with repetitions and redundancies omitted and with obvious reporting and grammatical mistakes corrected, but leaves out nothing that adds to the meaning or illustrates the argument.
Functions of the Department
The department of Hansard comprises of four sections, namely:
- The Recording and Broadcasting Section
- The Transcribing and Editing Section
- Printing and Publication Section
- Translation (Interpretation)
The Recording and Broadcasting Section
Is responsible for recording of the Parliamentary debates onto audio and videocassettes. It is also responsible for the control and operation of the Public Address System in the Chamber and the living broadcasting of Parliamentary proceedings.
The Transcribing and editorial Section
Is responsible for the transcription of Parliamentary debates from the audio cassettes to digital format which is reproduced in both hard and soft copy. It also occasionally transcribes evidence of key witnesses who appear before investigation Committees of Parliament on request.
The Section is also responsible for editing of Parliamentary debates, which entails correcting obvious reporting mistakes, errors of fact, eliminating redundancies and repetitions, but leaving out nothing that adds to the meaning. If Hansard makes a serious error, the Member concerned contacts the Editor who in turn arranges for a corrigendum.
The Printing and Publication Section
Is responsible for the printing of the a hard copy of Hansard and for the electronic publishing of a soft copy on the Parliamentary website, and Parliamentary Internet.
The Section also prints other Parliamentary publications like program booklets, Information brochures, Committee reports etc.
How Members can help
To assist them in the often difficult task of producing an accurate report, the Editors depend heavily on the help and co-operation of Members. In this regard, Members of Parliament receive a verbatim transcript of their own speeches made during each day's proceedings and correction. This is usually placed in their pigeonholes. The corrected transcripts should be returned to the Editor within 24 hours. The Members place the corrected transcripts in any of the boxes located in the lobbies adjoining the main chamber. Corrections are confined to grammatical corrections, error in reporting, errors of fact and malapropisms. Members are not permitted to rewrite their speeches or to make any corrections that in anyway alter the general sense of the speeches they have made.
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