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Datasets:
biglam
/
hansard_speech

Tasks:
Text Classification
Text Generation
Sub-tasks:
multi-class-classification
language-modeling
masked-language-modeling
Languages:
English
Size:
1M<n<10M
Tags:
speeches
politics
parliament
British
License:
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metadata
annotations_creators:
  - no-annotation
language_creators:
  - expert-generated
language:
  - en
license:
  - cc-by-4.0
multilinguality:
  - monolingual
size_categories:
  - 1M<n<10M
source_datasets:
  - original
task_categories:
  - text-classification
  - text-generation
task_ids:
  - multi-class-classification
  - language-modeling
  - masked-language-modeling
pretty_name: Hansard Speeches
tags:
  - speeches
  - politics
  - parliament
  - British
dataset_info:
  features:
    - name: id
      dtype: string
    - name: speech
      dtype: string
    - name: display_as
      dtype: string
    - name: party
      dtype: string
    - name: constituency
      dtype: string
    - name: mnis_id
      dtype: string
    - name: date
      dtype: string
    - name: time
      dtype: string
    - name: colnum
      dtype: string
    - name: speech_class
      dtype: string
    - name: major_heading
      dtype: string
    - name: minor_heading
      dtype: string
    - name: oral_heading
      dtype: string
    - name: year
      dtype: string
    - name: hansard_membership_id
      dtype: string
    - name: speakerid
      dtype: string
    - name: person_id
      dtype: string
    - name: speakername
      dtype: string
    - name: url
      dtype: string
    - name: government_posts
      sequence: string
    - name: opposition_posts
      sequence: string
    - name: parliamentary_posts
      sequence: string
  splits:
    - name: train
      num_bytes: 3398866626
      num_examples: 2694375
  download_size: 1479284559
  dataset_size: 3398866626
configs:
  - config_name: default
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/train-*

Dataset Card for Hansard speech

Table of Contents

Dataset Description

Dataset Summary

A dataset containing every speech in the House of Commons from May 1979-July 2020. Quoted from the dataset homepage

Please contact me if you find any errors in the dataset. The integrity of the public Hansard record is questionable at times, and while I have improved it, the data is presented "as is".

Supported Tasks and Leaderboards

  • text-classification: This dataset can be used to classify various texts (transcribed from speeches) as different time periods or as different types
  • language-modeling: This dataset can contribute to the training or the evaluation of language models for historical texts.

Languages

en:GB

Dataset Structure

Data Instances 

{
  'id': 'uk.org.publicwhip/debate/1979-05-17a.390.0', 
  'speech': "Since the Minister for Consumer Affairs said earlier that the bread price rise would be allowed, in view of developing unemployment in the baking industry, and since the Mother's Pride bakery in my constituency is about to close, will the right hon. Gentleman give us a firm assurance that there will be an early debate on the future of the industry, so that the Government may announce that, thanks to the price rise, those workers will not now be put out of work?", 
  'display_as': 'Eric Heffer', 
  'party': 'Labour', 
  'constituency': 'Liverpool, Walton', 
  'mnis_id': '725', 
  'date': '1979-05-17', 
  'time': '', 
  'colnum': '390', 
  'speech_class': 'Speech', 
  'major_heading': 'BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE', 
  'minor_heading': '', 
  'oral_heading': '', 
  'year': '1979', 
  'hansard_membership_id': '5612', 
  'speakerid': 'uk.org.publicwhip/member/11615', 
  'person_id': '', 
  'speakername': 'Mr. Heffer', 
  'url': '', 
  'government_posts': [], 
  'opposition_posts': [], 
  'parliamentary_posts': ['Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee']
}

Data Fields

Variable Description
id The ID as assigned by mysociety
speech The text of the speech
display_as The standardised name of the MP.
party The party an MP is member of at time of speech
constituency Constituency represented by MP at time of speech
mnis_id The MP's Members Name Information Service number
date Date of speech
time Time of speech
colnum Column number in hansard record
speech_class Type of speech
major_heading Major debate heading
minor_heading Minor debate heading
oral_heading Oral debate heading
year Year of speech
hansard_membership_id ID used by mysociety
speakerid ID used by mysociety
person_id ID used by mysociety
speakername MP name as appeared in Hansard record for speech
url link to speech
government_posts Government posts held by MP (list)
opposition_posts Opposition posts held by MP (list)
parliamentary_posts Parliamentary posts held by MP (list)

Data Splits

Train: 2694375

Dataset Creation

Curation Rationale

This dataset contains all the speeches made in the House of Commons and can be used for a number of deep learning tasks like detecting how language and societal views have changed over the >40 years. The dataset also provides language closer to the spoken language used in an elite British institution.

Source Data

Initial Data Collection and Normalization

The dataset is created by getting the data from data.parliament.uk. There is no normalization.

Who are the source language producers?

[N/A]

Annotations

Annotation process

None

Who are the annotators?

[N/A]

Personal and Sensitive Information

This is public information, so there should not be any personal and sensitive information

Considerations for Using the Data

Social Impact of Dataset

The purpose of this dataset is to understand how language use and society's views have changed over time.

Discussion of Biases

Because of the long time period this dataset spans, it might contain language and opinions that are unacceptable in modern society.

Other Known Limitations

[Needs More Information]

Additional Information

Dataset Curators

This dataset was built on top of parlparse by Evan Odell

Licensing Information

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Citation Information 

@misc{odell, evan_2021, 
title={Hansard Speeches 1979-2021: Version 3.1.0}, 
DOI={10.5281/zenodo.4843485}, 
abstractNote={<p>Full details are available at <a href="https://evanodell.com/projects/datasets/hansard-data">https://evanodell.com/projects/datasets/hansard-data</a></p> <p><strong>Version 3.1.0 contains the following changes:</strong></p> <p>- Coverage up to the end of April 2021</p>}, 
note={This release is an update of previously released datasets. See full documentation for details.}, 
publisher={Zenodo}, 
author={Odell, Evan}, 
year={2021}, 
month={May} }

Thanks to @shamikbose for adding this dataset.