Hansard’ for States on web

Wednesday 21st January 2004, 12:00AM GMT.

TRANSCRIPTS of States debates will be on the internet from next year.

States Members agreed yesterday to introduce a ‘Hansard’, or official record of debates and scrutiny hearings.

Despite concerns expressed by some politicians that the £300,000 annual cost was too high, a majority of States Members agreed that the transcripts would be essential to proper scrutiny.

They voted 27 votes to 18 to introduce the official record from 1 January next year, in time for the end of the current committee system and for the start of ministerial government.The proposal was made by the Privileges and Procedures Committee and introduced by Deputy Bob Hill, who told members that the transcripts would be made available on the internet, and that a search engine would be designed to help politicians and members of the public find the speeches they were looking for.

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