Hansard notes backlog being cleared up
published: Saturday | December 17, 2005

Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

THE STAFF at the Houses of Parliament have made a significant improvement in clearing the backlog of outstanding Hansard notes for the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Hansard is the verbatim report of all of Parliament's proceedings.

The state of the arrears was brought to public attention by the Parliamentary Salaries Review Committee, chaired by Gleaner Managing Director Oliver Clarke.

His report had cited a significant number of arrears dating from as far back as 1987 for the House of Representatives, and since 1991 for the Senate.

According to the report, many of these notes were either still at the printers or not yet there.

But when The Gleaner spoke recently with Shirley Lewis, clerk to the Houses of Parliament, she said there had been a marked improvement since the committee's investigations.

BUDGETARY PERIOD

Of some 15 outstanding Hansard notes for the Senate, she said seven were completed, with seven still at the printing office and one still not yet sent to the printers.

For the Houses of Representatives, there were some 16 outstanding Hansard notes. Of this amount, 10 years were cleared up, while the others were still at the printing office and one still in-house.

The reasons for the backlog, according to the Clarke Report, were that parliamentarians did not respond as quickly as they should when asked to confirm the Hansard records.

In addition, Mrs. Lewis said that they also had difficulties in getting some of the notes from the Government Printing Office. This was because sometimes the printing office was tied up with doing other work for the Government, especially during the budgetary period.

"We are happy to say that we are on target," she said of the backlog.

The Clarke Committee suggested that the Hansard notes be made available on the proposed website for Parliament and for sale to the public on CD.

In response to this, Mrs. Lewis said these recommendations have not yet been acted on, but will be done when a committee is set up by the Houses of Parliament to consider the recommendations.

The Parliamentary Salaries Review Committee was established to review, among other things, the formula for awarding increases in compensation to parliamentarians in the Senate and Lower House.