Hansard Database

This database contains information on matters discussed in Council meeting since the fifth term of LegCo. Hinting by its name, the database is built upon the PDF hansard files. Relying on the bookmarks and section codes of the hansard files, the data endpoints retrieve data from the files directly.

Arguments

hansard_id

the id of a hansard file, or a vector of ids. If NULL, returns results of all hansard files. Defaults to NULL.

speaker_id

the id of a speaker at the Legislative Council, or a vector of ids. If NULL, returns all speakers. Defaults to NULL.

rundown_id

the id of a rundown, or a vector of ids. If NULL, returns results of all rundowns. Defaults to NULL.

bookmark_name

the bookmark name of the rundown, or a vector of names. Defaults to NULL.

section_code

the section code, or a vector of codes. If NULL, returns results of sections. Defaults to NULL.

lang

the language of hansard files to search from. "en" returns the English version. "zh" returns the Traditional Chinese version. Defaults to "en".

from

only fetch results of meetings on or after this date. Accepts character values in "YYYY-MM-DD" format, and objects of class Date, POSIXt, POSIXct, POSIXlt or anything else that can be coerced to a date with as.Date(). Defaults to "1900-01-01".

to

only fetch results of meetings on or before this date. Accepts character values in "YYYY-MM-DD" format, and objects of class Date, POSIXt, POSIXct, POSIXlt or anything else that can be coerced to a date with as.Date(). Defaults to the current system date.

floor

logical: whether to fetch results from the floor version of the hansard files? The floor version is the first presented version of hansard file in the original language delivered by the speakers in LegCo. If TRUE, the language option is ignored. Defaults to FALSE.

result

the voting result. "passed" returns motions that have been passed. "vetoed" returns motions that have been vetoed. "all" returns all motions that has been voted in LegCo. Defaults to all.

extra_param

additional query parameters defined in LegCo API. Must begin with "&".

n

the number of record to fetch. Defaults to 1000.

count

logical: Whether to return only the total count of records that matches the parameter(s) instead of the result. Defaults to FALSE.

verbose

logical: Whether to display progress messages when fetching data? Defaults to TRUE.

Functions

Functions of the Hansard database:

• hansard: Hansard files

• legco_section_type: Section code

• subjects: Subjects speakers: Speakers in the council, including members, government officials and secretariat staff

• rundown: Rundown (Paragraphs in hansard)

• questions: Questions raised by members

• bills: Bills

• motions: Motions

• petitions: Petitions

• addresses: Addresses made by members or government officials when presenting papers to the Council

• statements: Statements made by government officials

• voting_results: Results of votes in council meetings

• summoning_bells: Instances of summoning bells being rung

See also

LegCo API documentation for the Hansard database: https://www.legco.gov.hk/en/open-legco/open-data/hansard-database.html