So first of all, thanks so much for changing this, and I look forward to full roll-out of the updated “content-chunking”.

Just wanted to suggest a few other things:

Many people do seek to get electronic access to an entire debate over a piece of legislation, and so the possibility of having this available (or convertable) to a PDF document would be great.

While pictures and such might work in an online format, they do become unwieldy for printing/saving debates. It can also screw up the text when transferring – this is what happens with parliamentary debates on theyworkforyou.com

Lastly, it would be brilliant if debates on a bill could be linked to past and future discussion of that same bill. So, for instance, if second reading debates could include links to first and third reading debates.

The first thing we do on the morning after a debate is to cut and paste all the text into a document and circulate it widely – we just don’t have time to wait for the paper copies to come round (but don’t worry, we do subscribe to them as well). It’s absolutely vital that we have the column numbers in the right place, because we refer to them a lot and need them when compiling Explanatory Notes, etc – that’s a weakness of the new format, and could be fixed by putting the numbers in square brackets where they belong.

It would be incredibly useful if the website could be used to generate pdf copies of the debates on particular topics. You have managed to improve that for the web pages (and hundreds of public servants will thank you for removing the wretched concept of “next section”), but it would be brilliant to be able to click on a button that printed, say, “all debates on the Autism Bill” or “yesterday’s debates on the Autism Bill” and get a document that removed any intervening statements or debates on a different topic during, say, the dinner break in the Lords. I would hazard a guess that almost nobody wants to read the whole of an evening’s debates on every topic. I have reams of printed Hansard sent only to tell me that a programme motion was passed or that my Bill has been read for the first time. It’s traditional, but unnecessary and a waste of paper and space.

I really like Ellis Turrell’s idea above of putting photos beside the speaker’s name. But only for people reading on screen. Isn’t it tempting to have a “comment on this debate” box too? I’m only half-joking – it might help with public engagement.

[Incidentally, there doesn't seem to be a link to this blog from the main beta site...]

The unchunking of the content is very welcome – those ‘next section’ links were a real annoyance!

I would ask for an easier way to reach a particular day’s debate. Perhaps a calendar that fitted on a single screen for each year, where if a debate was held on a particular day, the date would be clickable.

As mentioned above, the page is too wide. A page with left and right columns of associated information and central text, like the BBC News website, is much more readable. Either that, or the text width could be able to be resized by the user.

You have dropped column numbers corresponding to the printed copy. I can see that this declutters the page, but we do need some way to refer to a particular point in a debate, and column numbers would seem the most obviouis choice. A way of going straight to a column number (if that was chosen) would be useful too.

Once the initial presentation is decided, then the addition of links to all sorts of things would be welcome (MPs’ details, Bill details, amendment lists etc.).

1. Will Hansard be available in XML format?

2. Column numbers are hidden on my computer as they are off the right hand side of the screen (it’s not a very small screen). It doesn’t seem a particularly intuitive location for them, unless the page is narrower. Although most people do not need to use them, people who use the site frequently probably will do.

3. Agree with the suggestions about having clickable links to the anchors in the text (along the lines of permalinks).

4. In debates on Bills, could the title be a clickable link to a broader “Bill” page – ie. an explanation of the Bill, the full text, explanatories, amendments, links to other debates, etc. ?
Basically to (e.g.) this: http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2008-09/coronersandjustice.html

5. The main menu changes between this new version of Hansard and the main site (significantly, Bills and Legislation disappears on the Hansard page)

7. Printed stylesheet needs to be sorted out:
a) Remove navigation list / menu; search box; probably breadcrumb
b) Text could perhaps do with being a bit larger
c) Column numbers disappear.

It looks great, but I agree that scanning is much harder with such a wide column.