Yes. The Commons Report stage and Third Reading debates in the week of 14 July 2026, when the Bill returned after the Rycroft Review, are recorded verbatim in Hansard alongside the earlier wash-up period proceedings.Source: Lowdown

What did the Hansard Society say about the RPA Bill being excluded from wash-up?

The Hansard Society published commentary during the April 2026 wash-up period on the Representation of the People Bill's exclusion from the four-bill programme, noting that a bill requiring nine committee sittings cannot be expedited in wash-up.Source: Lowdown

Why did Robert Jenrick use Parliament rather than a press conference to reveal legal advice?

Parliamentary privilege protects statements made on the floor of the House from defamation claims. By making the claim in a Commons adjournment debate recorded in Hansard, Jenrick ensured it was both verifiable and legally protected.

Background

Hansard is the official, substantially verbatim record of all debates and proceedings of the UK Parliament, including both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, published since 1803. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, the printer who first produced it independently before Parliament took over. Hansard also records written questions, written statements, and committee proceedings.

Hansard is the gold-standard primary source for anything said on the floor of Parliament or in committee. The 9 February 2026 Commons adjournment debate on the Elections to West Sussex County Council, where Robert Jenrick MP stated that legal advice received during his tenure as Secretary of State had already judged second-year election postponement unlawful, is a verbatim Hansard record and was cited as the definitive source for Jenrick's claim. Statements made on the floor carry parliamentary privilege and cannot be the subject of libel action, which is precisely why Jenrick chose that forum to reveal the existence of prior legal advice. Hansard is freely searchable at Hansard.Parliament.uk and is cited as the definitive source for MP statements in UK journalism and legal proceedings.

In the 2026 elections context, Hansard is also the record of parliamentary proceedings on the Representation of the People Bill, including the prorogation announcement that Left the Bill without Royal Assent. The Hansard Society, a separate NGO founded in 1944 to promote parliamentary democracy, published commentary during the wash-up period on the RPA Bill's exclusion from the four-bill programme and what the omission means for campaign-finance reform.