hansard is an R package to pull data from the UK parliament through the http://www.data.parliament.uk/ API. It emphasises simplicity and ease of use, so that users unfamiliar with APIs can easily retrieve large volumes of high quality data. Each function accepts a single argument at a time, and functions that require additional information to retrieve the data you requested will ask for it after you execute the function.
install.packages(“hansard”)
install.packages(“devtools”) devtools::install_github(“EvanOdell/hansard”)
library(“hansard”)
There are 24 functions that currently work with the Parliamentary API:
all_answered_questions
bills
commons_answered_questions
commons_divisions
commons_oral_question_times
commons_oral_questions
commons_terms
commons_written_questions
constituencies
early_day_motions
election_results
elections
epetition
lords_ammendments
lords_attendance
lords_divisions
lords_written_questions
members
members_search
papers_laid
publication_logs
research_briefings
sessions_info
tv_programmes
Looking up information on an individual MP or Lord through the Parliamentary API requires knowing their parliamentary ID number. This can be hard to find on the web, but luckily you can look it up through the API. We want information on the voting record of Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott, but we don’t know her ID number, so we search for her:
library(hansard)
members_search("abbot")
#> MP.ID additionalName constituency constituencyCode
#> 1 172 Julie Hackney North and Stoke Newington 146966
#> 2 1651 Granville <NA> NA
#> 3 4249 <NA> Newton Abbot 147092
#> 4 3827 Edmond <NA> NA
#> familyName fullName gender givenName
#> 1 Abbott Ms Diane Abbott Female Diane
#> 2 Hodgson Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts Male Robin
#> 3 Morris Anne Marie Morris Female Anne Marie
#> 4 Neuberger Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury Male David
#> homePage
#> 1 http://www.dianeabbott.org.uk
#> 2 <NA>
#> 3 http://www.annemariemorris.co.uk/
#> 4 http://www.judiciary.gov.uk
#> label party
#> 1 Biography information for Ms Diane Abbott Labour
#> 2 Biography information for Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts <NA>
#> 3 Biography information for Anne Marie Morris Conservative
#> 4 Biography information for Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury <NA>
#> twitter
#> 1 https://twitter.com/HackneyAbbott
#> 2 <NA>
#> 3 https://twitter.com/AMMorrisMP
#> 4 <NA>The search function is not case sensitive, and searchs in the names and constituencies of all MPs and Lords. So even though we spelled her surname incorrectly, we can still find her.
The commons_divisions function returns divisions in the House of Commons and the divisions that a member votes no or aye in. The example below returns all Commons Divisions where Diane Abbott voted aye.
x <- commons_divisions("aye")
#> Enter Member ID: 172
#> Retrieving page 1 of 4
#> Retrieving page 2 of 4
#> Retrieving page 3 of 4
#> Retrieving page 4 of 4
#> head(x)
#> _about title
#> 1 http://data.parliament.uk/resources/626911 Opposition Motion: Community Pharmacies
#> 2 http://data.parliament.uk/resources/626953 Opposition Motion: Police Officer Safety
#> 3 http://data.parliament.uk/resources/621252 Opposition Motion: Yemen
#> 4 http://data.parliament.uk/resources/607490 Closure Motion: Sexual Offences (Pardons Etc.) Bill second reading
#> 5 http://data.parliament.uk/resources/582798 Opposition Motion: NHS sustainabiliy and transformation plans
#> 6 http://data.parliament.uk/resources/576587 Finance Bill: Report Stage Amdt 174
#> uin date._value date._datatype
#> 1 CD:2016-11-02:142 2016-11-02 dateTime
#> 2 CD:2016-11-02:143 2016-11-02 dateTime
#> 3 CD:2016-10-26:139 2016-10-26 dateTime
#> 4 CD:2016-10-21:138 2016-10-21 dateTime
#> 5 CD:2016-09-14:134 2016-09-14 dateTime
#> 6 CD:2016-09-06:125 2016-09-06 dateTimeThe function research_briefings is unusual in that it requests names instead of codes.
#> x <- research_briefings('topicSubTopic')
#> Sub-topics are case sensititve. To return list of sub-topics, enter yes.
#> Enter sub-topic: yes
#
#> [1] 'Agriculture, animals, food and rural affairs' 'Asylum, immigration and nationality'
#> [3] 'Business, industry and consumers' 'Communities and families'
#> [5] 'Crime, civil law, justice and rights' 'Culture, media and sport'
#> [7] 'Defence' 'Economy and finance'
#> [9] 'Education' 'Employment and training'
#> [11] 'Energy and environment' 'European Union'
#> [13] 'Health services and medicine' 'Housing and planning'
#> [15] 'International affairs' 'Parliament, government and politics'
#> [17] 'Science and technology' 'Social Security and pensions'
#> [19] 'Social services' 'Transport'
#> Enter Topic. For ease of use, copy and paste the topic: Education
#> Sub-topics are case sensititve. To return list of sub-topics, enter yes.
#> Enter sub-topic: yes
#> [1] "Adult education" "Further education"
#> [3] "Higher education" "Local authorities: education"
#> [5] "Ofsted" "Pre-school education"
#> [7] "Schools" "Special educational needs"
#> [9] "Students" "Teachers"
#> Enter sub-topic. For ease of use, copy and paste the sub-topic: Teachers