The History of Hansard
Hansard is the edited verbatim record of debates in the UK Parliament. Its modern form has been published continuously since 1909, but its origins reach back to a long contest over whether parliamentary proceedings should be public at all.
When Parliament was secret
For most of its history, debates in the House of Commons were not officially reported. Members spoke under parliamentary privilege, but publishing what they said outside the chamber was a breach of that privilege — punishable by both Houses. Anyone who attempted to report debates risked fines, imprisonment, or summons before Parliament itself.
This secrecy began to break down in 1771, when several London printers defied the Commons by publishing accounts of debates. The radical John Wilkes — then a London magistrate — refused to enforce the Commons' warrants against them. After a confrontation with the Commons that produced no clear winner, Parliament effectively conceded that prosecuting reporters was politically untenable. Reporting continued unofficially, often through sympathetic newspapers.
William Cobbett and the radical foundation (1802–1812)
The first sustained attempt at a comprehensive record of parliamentary proceedings came from William Cobbett, a radical journalist and publisher. In 1802, Cobbett began publishing parliamentary debates as a supplement to his weekly Political Register. Within a few years, his project had expanded to three connected works: contemporary debates from 1803 onwards, a retrospective parliamentary history covering proceedings before that, and a collection of state trials.
Cobbett's printer for these volumes was Thomas Curson Hansard — son of Luke Hansard, who had been printer to the House of Commons since the 1770s.
In 1810, Cobbett was prosecuted for seditious libel over an article criticising the British government's treatment of mutinous soldiers. He was fined and imprisoned for two years. By 1812, his finances had collapsed, and he sold his interests in the parliamentary publications to T.C. Hansard.
The name on the title page changed first; the substance of what was being recorded did not.
The Hansard name takes hold (1813–1908)
Through the 19th century, Hansard's Parliamentary Debates remained a private commercial venture. The Hansard family continued to print it, passing the business through generations. From 1829 the name "Hansard" appeared prominently on every title page. Over time, "Hansard" became the customary name for the report itself.
Two events of the 19th century shaped what Hansard would become.
First, in 1837, the firm became a defendant in Stockdale v. Hansard. A book publisher sued Hansard for libel over content in an official Commons report. The case wound through the courts and exposed a constitutional gap: parliamentary privilege did not automatically extend to the printers and publishers carrying parliamentary material to the public. Parliament responded with the Parliamentary Papers Act 1840, which gave statutory protection to publications made under Parliament's authority.
Second, in 1893, a House of Commons select committee defined what kind of record Hansard was supposed to be: not a strictly word-for-word transcript, but "substantially the verbatim report, with repetitions and redundancies omitted and with obvious mistakes corrected, but which on the other hand leaves out nothing that adds to the meaning of the speech or illustrates the argument." That definition — substantially verbatim, lightly edited for clarity — has shaped Hansard's editorial style ever since.
The official record begins (1909)
Until the early 20th century, Hansard remained a privately produced publication. It was thorough but not always comprehensive — not every contribution was recorded in full, and reporting depended on what a private firm could resource.
In 1909, Parliament took over publication directly. From that year, Hansard became an official record: produced by Parliament's own reporters, comprehensive across every speech, and covering the two Houses in separate volumes. The Stationery Office took over the printing.
This is the form most people now recognise as "Hansard" — the authoritative, more or less verbatim record of debates, Q&A, ministerial statements, and committee proceedings.
The name "Hansard" was technically dropped from the cover page in 1909, when responsibility moved from the family firm to the official Parliamentary printer. But the name was already too well-established to disappear; it was reinstated on the cover in 1943, where it remains.
Hansard today
Modern Hansard is published online within hours of speeches being given, and in print the following morning. It covers:
- Debates in the Commons and the Lords chambers
- Westminster Hall debates
- Public Bill Committee proceedings
- Written Statements and Written Answers to Parliamentary Questions
- Petitions
The historical archive — going back to 1803 — is digitised and freely searchable on the official Hansard website at hansard.parliament.uk.
By convention, if a member makes an inaccurate statement in Parliament, they are expected to write a correction into the copy of Hansard kept in the House of Commons library. Hansard reporters do light editing for clarity but not substance: members cannot revise their views in the record after the fact.
Why Hansard matters
Hansard exists because the publication of what is said in Parliament is now seen as a foundation of democratic accountability — but that view took two centuries to settle. The path from secret debates and imprisoned reporters in the 18th century to today's online same-day publication is the path of Parliament becoming open to the public it serves.
For policy professionals, journalists, researchers, and engaged citizens, Hansard is the primary record of what was said, who said it, and how positions on issues have evolved over time.
Westminster Brief draws on Hansard as one of its primary data sources, indexing debates from the past 12 months for quick search and theme-based browsing. For older material, or for the canonical authoritative version of any debate, the official record is at hansard.parliament.uk. Westminster Brief's own Hansard lets you search and browse recent debates by theme, member, or date.
Sources and further reading
- Hansard's official site — hansard.parliament.uk
- Parliament's living heritage page on William Cobbett
- The History of Hansard, John Vice and Stephen Farrell, House of Lords Library
- Commonwealth Hansard Editors Association — About Hansard
- The Parliamentary Papers Act 1840