Photo: Central Hallway in Parliament Building, Ottawa by Pascal Walschots, licensed under Creative Commons 2.0

The Commonwealth Hansard Editors Association was founded at Westminster in 1984. The idea of the association was suggested by the then editor of the Westminster Commons Hansard, Ken Morgan. Associations had already been formed in Canada and Australia in the early 1970s. CHEA now has more than 50 members, from across the entire Commonwealth, and a constitution.

The association provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and information, enabling the reporters and editors of Hansards around the world better to serve the Parliaments that they report. Its conferences allow for the pooling of expertise and experience about rapidly evolving reporting techniques and technology.

Although parliamentary reporting is a constantly changing business, Hansards are ultimately a chronicle of history. The challenges were well summarised by the then Westminster Speaker, now Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell, when she opened the 1996 CHEA conference:

     “Behind change lies an unchangeable requirement on you all: the challenge and responsibility to maintain your traditional standards of accuracy and impartiality. That is crucial because accuracy and impartiality are the hallmarks of Hansard. Whatever changes come along, parliamentarians – all of us – look to you to hold fast to those guiding principles.”