OUTPUT GROUP 1:
BROADCAST AND TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES

OUTPUT 1.1: TRANSCRIPTION

Hansard contributes to the department's outcomes by producing electronic and hard copy transcripts of the proceedings of the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Main Committee of the House of Representatives, parliamentary committees and parliamentary conferences.

At the output group level, Hansard measures its performance against indicators of transcription quantity, price and quality of production.

Transcription quantity

Performance indicator: percentage change and number of hours transcribed, by category.

Basis for comparison: trend over time.

Chambers

1,356 hours of chamber proceedings were transcribed in the financial year 2000-2001, down 7 per cent on the 1450 hours transcribed in 1999-2000 but still higher than the average annual result of 1,314 hours recorded over the last 9 years.

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Although chamber sitting times during the year were reasonably predictable, additional or extended sittings of the Main Committee of the House of Representatives were frequently advised to Hansard at very short notice, creating problems in staff rostering and meeting transcript production deadlines.

Notwithstanding constantly increasing workloads, particularly as evidenced in the simultaneous scheduling of chamber sittings and committee hearings, the timeliness of the Hansard service has improved steadily over recent years. This year has seen that standard maintained.

The practice of engaging external transcript providers to assist with chamber transcription during Wednesday and Thursday lunchtime sittings continued in 2000-2001.

This course was first adopted during 1999-2000 to accommodate the increasing numbers of committee hearings being scheduled on sitting days, particularly Wednesdays and Thursdays, concurrently with the sittings of the chambers, including the Main Committee.

During 2000-2001 only one external provider was available to assist with chamber lunchtime transcription. Nevertheless, as a result of more efficient procedures and the increased number of staff in the lead up to the new staffing plan, Hansard was able to meet normal service standards on most occasions when the House and the Senate sat through the lunchtime period.

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Committees

In 2000-2001, Hansard transcribed 2,266 hours of committee hearings. While this figure is 9 per cent lower than the previous year, it is consistent with the usual pattern and number of committee hours transcribed at this stage of the parliamentary cycle. It is also 100 hours above the yearly average established over the course of the last three Parliaments. Senate committees made up 65 per cent of the total and House of Representatives committees the remaining 35 per cent. Interstate committee hearings accounted for around 39 per cent of the total hours transcribed compared with 42 per cent in 1999-2000.

For House of Representatives committees, around 60 per cent of the hours transcribed were from interstate hearings, and the number of hours from interstate hearings increased by 25 per cent compared with the previous year. For Senate committees, hours transcribed from interstate hearings were around 28 per cent of the total, a drop of 39 per cent from the number transcribed from interstate hearings in 1999-2000.

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In 2000-2001 Hansard produced committee transcripts in accordance with a priority production schedule. Committee secretaries could request that transcripts be delivered within 1 to 3 days from the date of hearing (priority transcripts), 3 to 5 days or 5 to 10 days. The pattern of requests has remained relatively consistent since 1997-1998, though there was an increase in demand in the 1 to 3 and 3 to 5 day categories this year.

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Transcription price (cost)

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Performance indicator: cost per hour of corrected transcript, by category.

Basis for comparison: trend over time.

Chambers

The full monthly costs for chamber transcription varied markedly during the year, corresponding with fluctuations in parliamentary sitting patterns. The monthly averaged full cost per hour for chamber transcription was $4,002 ($3,677 in 1999-2000).

Despite the reduction in the number of hours transcribed and the resulting increase in the monthly average full cost per hour, the direct cost per hour has remained steady, $2,341 in 1999-2000 and $2,368 in 2000-01.

Committees

The monthly averaged full cost per hour for committee transcription was $2,804 ($2,270 in 1999-2000). The increase can be attributed to the reduction in the number of hours transcribed, although this did not affect the direct cost per hour which fell from $1,126 in 1999-2000 to $1,114 in 2000-01, an improvement of 1.5 per cent

Transcription quality

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Performance indicator: high client satisfaction - percentage and number of clients satisfied with services.

Basis for comparison: trend over time.

Of the 144 Senators, Members, senior managers and parliamentary staff surveyed in the 2000 Client Satisfaction Survey, 83 per cent were satisfied or very satisfied with broadcast and transcription services.

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Performance indicator: accurate transcription error rate per 100 pages transcribed, as notified by client, by category.

Basis for comparison: trend over time.

Chambers

For seven years Hansard has recorded figures for error rates based on the number of corrections returned by Senators and Members and accepted as errors. The trend over time demonstrates that, despite much greater emphasis on timeliness for both chamber and committee work, staff have been able to maintain high standards throughout the year.

The combined chamber error rate of 6.11 errors per 100 pages shows a slight improvement over the two previous years. Similarly, the Main Committee error rate has improved. The higher rate for the Main Committee may be addressed with a greater number of fully trained staff becoming available as editor numbers increase.

Committees

The accuracy of committee transcripts stayed at around seven errors per 100 pages transcribed. In 2000-2001, the rate was 7.5 errors compared with 6.5 errors per 100 pages in 1999-2000. This error rate has stayed relatively constant since 1998, despite a marked increase in workload.

The quality of externally provided transcripts also remains at a high level. One incident, however, created some difficulties for the Parliament. On 20 April 2001, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs held an inquiry in Darwin, and the department contracted Auscript to record the hearing and provide a transcript. Part of the hearing was not recorded and therefore could not be transcribed. The department managed to retrieve part of the lost sound but over an hour of the proceedings could not be recovered. The department has taken steps to ensure that external providers fully comply with the requirements of their contracts.

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In future, the performance of individual external providers will be measured against the key performance indicators (KPIs) of quantity, cost, quality and timeliness. KPIs will be discussed with providers as part of the monitoring process.

Timeliness

Performance indicator: percentage and number of transcripts delivered within standard, by category.

Basis for comparison: trend over time.

Chambers

• Individual draft speeches available to Senators and Members within 2 hours of speech finishing

In 2000-2001, 96.6 per cent of Senate drafts and 93.1 per cent of House of Representatives drafts were delivered to Senators and Members within two hours. The House of Representatives figure includes the Main Committee. Overall, 94.58 per cent of drafts were delivered on time, comparable with the 1999-2001 result of 94.01 per cent.

Delivery times for all drafts, particularly Main Committee ones, improved dramatically towards the end of the reporting year. This was due not only to greater emphasis on timeliness but also the improved performance of the Hansard Production System. Delivery standards of 99 per cent for the Senate and House and 94 per cent for the Main Committee were attained in the Budget Sittings and similar results are expected in 2001-2002.

• Electronic proof Hansard reports available within three hours of house rising

The standard was met for the Senate on 53 per cent of sitting days, and for the House of Representatives on 48 per cent. On many occasions, however, reports were published just minutes outside the three-hour criteria.

As was the case with drafts, there was a substantial improvement in publishing times in the second half of the year, when over 75 per cent of electronic proof Hansards were published within three hours. Several production system enhancements have led to this improvement and continuing development will enable an even higher standard to be met in 2001-2002.

• Hard copy proof Hansard reports available in Parliament House by 8.30 am on the day following sitting day

Ninety-seven per cent of hard copy proof Hansards (Senate and House of Representatives) was available in Parliament House by 8.30am of the morning after sitting. During the Budget Sittings all proof Hansards were delivered on time.

• Electronic official Hansard available within 10 working days following last sitting in the week
• Hard copy official Hansard delivered to publisher within 10 working days following last sitting day in the week

Eighty-two per cent of Senate and 72 per cent of House of Representatives official Hansards were delivered within standard. Though these results have improved from 1999-2000, there is still significant room for improvement and Hansard will place more emphasis on producing official Hansards to meet service standards.

Committees

• Percentage and number of transcripts delivered within standard

In 2000-2001, Hansard achieved a 100 per cent on time delivery rate in all but two months, March (70 per cent) and February (98 per cent), resulting in an overall rate of 95 per cent of committee transcripts delivered within the agreed timeframe. This compares with a 98 per cent delivery rate in the previous year. The three per cent reduction in the rate can be attributed to the concentrated workload peaks experienced during the year.

The scheduling of committee hearings in sitting weeks has caused a significant problem in meeting transcript delivery times. In March, committees met 96 times (36 times when the Parliament was sitting ) and Hansard was unable to meet the agreed delivery times on 29 occasions. Despite the use of available external providers and the extensive overtime worked by Hansard staff, there were insufficient resources to meet the level of demand. This situation was exacerbated by the lack of notice of extended meeting times of the Main Committee of the House of Representatives.

Hansard is implementing new staffing arrangements and increasing its number of skilled editing staff. The new staffing arrangements, together with the cost-effective use of external providers, will maximise production capacity in peak workload periods.

Community access

Performance indicator: community access to parliamentary proceedings - number of Internet and ParlInfo access requests (text and multimedia)

One of the strategies adopted by the department to give the Australian people the opportunity to see, hear and read the work of their Parliament is to make parliamentary proceedings, including Hansard transcripts, available on the Internet and ParlInfo, the parliamentary information database.

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In 1999-2000, the department added live Internet audio and vision webcasting of chamber proceedings and selected committee hearings to the wide range of parliamentary material it makes available electronically.

Statistics on the number of visits to Hansard transcripts using the Web Interface to ParlInfo (WIPI) show that there has been a substantial increase in the electronic access to Hansard transcripts by clients.

Overall there was a 16 per cent increase in recorded accesses to Hansard transcripts using WIPI from 1999-2000 (3,084,136) to 2000-2001 (3,575,009). Around 67 per cent of all WIPI access requests related to committee transcripts and 33 per cent related to chamber transcripts.

Figures are also available on the number of Internet access requests (hits) made on the http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard address. These total 3,556,292 for the period July 2000-June 2001.

The table below shows the number of access requests via WIPI and ParlInfo relating to Hansard transcripts of the Senate, the House of Representatives and parliamentary committees.

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