In this guest post, two reporters from our colleagues at Hansard offer a glimpse of what it is like to report on parliamentary business in a virtual world.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, business in the Commons Chamber has been conducted in a hybrid format for the past month or so. There is capacity for up to 50 MPs to be present in the Chamber, and all others who wish to contribute have appeared virtually via Zoom.
But virtual sittings in the Commons actually started in Select Committees, way back at the end of March and they continue to meet in this way.
My experience of working behind a screen
Charlie Browne, House Reporter
It's Thursday 26 March, and the Health and Social Care Committee is holding the first ever public Select Committee sitting to be conducted entirely over Zoom. Jeremy Hunt chairs the Committee from the parliamentary estate. Other Committee members and witnesses join the meeting remotely from their homes or offices.
And we’re here too, as with any Committee that Hansard is reporting. By “here” I mean that three reporters, plus one reserve (just in case) are in our separate homes, logged into the Zoom meeting. As we appear anonymously behind black screens, we are each described in Zoom’s titles as a “Hansard note taker”.
I think we’ve probably chosen this moniker because no one would know what we were doing if we went with “Hansard logger”. People might wonder if we were felling trees, or something.
Nevertheless, logging is what we’re trying to do. That is, making a record – or log – that reporters can use in conjunction with an audio recording, to figure out exactly who is speaking and what’s going on. I say “trying” because this is the first time we’ve dealt with a virtual Committee, so we’re working it out as we go.
Trial and error
First, we try using Hansard’s customised version of Word. But it’s just too slow and difficult for us to keep up with the Committee.
Next, we try using plain Word files, but again this ends up being too slow. Finally, we decide to produce an online Word document that we can all edit at the same time. It’s much easier to take over from one another, and to help colleagues to correct formatting errors and typos as they press on with the job. This is the way forward.
What's easier, what's harder
We’re operating a rota of one person logging electronically, one person making a back-up pen and paper version, and one person taking a break.
We switch roles every half hour or so. This makes it far easier to get distracted than if I were logging in a Committee room without my colleagues. Noting which Member is speaking is simpler, because their face is at the centre of my screen (in some Committee Rooms, we don’t have the best view of all participants), but I do find that I’m having to work a lot harder to focus on the arguments.
I’m relieved that one of my colleagues is on standby, as the tablet I’m using to watch the Committee on suddenly fails me and needs to be restarted. I’m also conscious that it will not be realistic for us to keep up this level of staffing when there are many more Select Committees sitting.
The Committee overruns by over an hour (no complaints – this is the Health Committee at the height of a pandemic!), so I’m glad we built the breaks into the rota.
Time to feed the cat.
Reporting from my kitchen table
Jenny Hilder, Parliamentary Reporter
So far, so normal. It’s Friday morning and I’ve just put my name down to report some of yesterday’s Health and Social Care Committee sitting.
I’m at home – just like most of the Committee members and witnesses. The coronavirus pandemic means that I am working at my kitchen table with my laptop jostling for space next to a couple of sickly looking houseplants. Luckily, our remote working systems are holding up better than they are, despite the short notice, thanks to the hard work of Hansard’s and Parliament’s IT experts.
I’m pleased to find that the audio, which I’ve downloaded from parliamentlive.tv, is good quality, so I can easily hear what everyone is saying. That’s important because a Select Committee transcript is about recording the precise testimony of expert witnesses, which could inform a Select Committee report and, ultimately, Government action.
A few hiccups, and what I miss most
One witness has a poor internet connection and their audio is patchy, but the Chair is quick to stop them and ask them to try again. It’s also tricky if people speak over one another. If that happened in normal circumstances, I would watch the video feed to work out what was said, or turn up the volume to disentangle one voice from another. Both those things are more difficult over Zoom. The other thing I’d try is asking my colleagues for help...
The company of colleagues is the main thing I miss. Teamwork is a huge part of our work, especially when it comes to listening to tricky sentences or hard-to-hear words.
With my usual deskmates scattered around the M25, I send out a plea via email instead: “Will you listen to something for me?” And while I wait for a reply, I can finally water those houseplants.
A more detailed post about virtual Select Committees can be found on Hansard’s blog and you can read a previous post about Hansard reporting from the House of Commons in the time of coronavirus.