Introduction

DPS is the primary ICT service provider for Parliament. DPS manages the ICT infrastructure, support and delivery of a range of information, telecommunication and broadcasting services inside Parliament House, to parliamentarian’s federal electorate offices, to commonwealth parliament offices, to the public and to visitors of the Parliament of Australia website.

In August 2016, the Information Communication Technology Division was renamed as the Information Services Division signalling a new strategic direction for the management of information as an asset. From January 2017, the Parliamentary Recording and Reporting Branch (PRRB) joined the division. It previously reported directly to the Secretary.

PRRB is responsible for Parliamentary Audio Visual Services and Hansard—areas where technological solutions such as captioning are transforming the way we work and the way we deliver services to parliamentarians and the Parliament. The move of PRRB into the ISD is intended to enable more integrated approach to the design and development of innovative services, especially where technology has a significant influence.

The new ISD will enable a more holistic focus on planning and delivering innovative, unified and client focussed electronic information services to the Parliament. The new arrangement will manage the information lifecycle and have enhanced capability to treat information as a strategic asset for the Parliament. All branches within the division report to the Chief Information Officer, who is the head of ISD.

Divisional highlights

Planning and Applications Branch

The Planning and Applications Branch is primarily responsible for the delivery of strategic ICT capability as outlined in the Parliament of Australia ICT Strategic Plan. This is achieved through an architectural approach, enabling improved access to parliamentary information and services through state-of-the-art technology.

The branch is made up of three sections which report to the Assistant Secretary:

• Architecture Services
• Mobile & Web Applications
• ICT Project Management Office.

Key highlights of the branch include:

• The ParlWork web application was made available to parliamentarians and their staff on 14 September 2016, followed by a public release on 10 May 2017. The application enables users to access information about the work of the Senate and the House of Representatives, including daily agendas, legislative work, notices of motions, resolutions and decisions made by each house. The application is optimised for mobile device access and represents a major step forward in digital access to the operations of Parliament that have traditionally been predominately paper-based.
• Supporting the Parliamentary Experience Branch to successfully establish the new DPS in-house catering service by delivering point of sale, events management and food temperature monitoring solutions.

Infrastructure and Services Branch

The Infrastructure and Services Branch provides key operational support services as well as the management and maintenance of IT systems supporting the functioning of the Parliament, federal electorate offices and commonwealth parliament offices across the country.

The branch is made up of four sections which report to the Assistant Secretary:

• ICT Security Operations
• ICT Support Services (2020 Service Desk, ICT Training, ParlICT for parliamentarians, Second Level Support)
• Infrastructure Operations
• Networking and Broadcasting Communications.

Key highlights of the branch include:

• The DPS internet gateway was migrated to the Whole of Government secure internet gateway service, delivering significant enhancements in cyber security.
• A cloud hosted IT service management tool was implemented to support and enhance the delivery of IT services to parliamentarians and the parliamentary departments.
• Additional support and services were delivered during the federal election including the management and delivery of ICT services for incoming and outgoing parliamentarians and their staff within APH and electorate offices across the country.
• In support of parliamentarians in the 45th Parliament, the branch set up an ICT pop-up shop where parliamentarians could talk with ICT specialists about device options to suit their needs.
• In early 2017, parliamentarians and their staff who were affected by Cyclone Debbie were provided ICT support to ensure they received continued access to information, in order to support their communities.

Parliamentary Recording and Reporting Branch

The Parliamentary Recording and Reporting Branch (PRRB) is responsible for broadcasting and archiving the audiovisual record of chamber and committee proceedings and for producing the official written record of parliamentary debates and committee hearings, known as the Hansard.

The branch is made up of two sections which report to the Assistant Secretary:

• Hansard
• Parliamentary Audio Visual Services.

Key highlights of the branch include:

• Delivered the broadcasting of major events, including the opening of the 45th Parliament and visits by Premier Li of China, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe of Sri Lanka and Prime Minister Lee of Singapore.
• Introduced live captioning and a major upgrade of live webcasting to enhance the Parliament’s engagement with the community.
  • The live captioning service makes proceedings of Parliament accessible for deaf and hard of hearing viewers. Through this DPS initiative, the Parliament of Australia became the first jurisdiction in Australia to introduce this important accessibility service for the community.
  • Improvements to live webcasting of Parliament include major enhancements in streaming quality and reliability, a five-hour rewind capability and support for modern devices and browsers.

Table 16: Hours recorded and transcribed

Activity	Number of hours recorded and transcribed
	2014–15	2015–16	2016–17
Parliamentary proceedings in the Senate, House of Representatives and Federation Chamber	1,612	1,204	1,342
Parliament House committee hearings	1,567	1,154	1,343
Interstate committee hearings	1,037	1,275	873
Total	4,216	3,633	3,558

Hansard

During 2016–17 Hansard strengthened its processes for recording transcription errors notified by customers. Chamber and committee transcription errors were therefore recorded more accurately, with the overall error rate for chambers being 2.59 errors per 100 pages and, for committees, 15.81 errors per 100 pages.

The strengthened error recording and reporting processes identified error rates higher than in previous years. The committee accuracy result clearly exceeds the service standard of five errors per 100 pages. To improve accuracy, Hansard will implement additional quality assurance processes in the second half of 2017.

Table 17: Hansard—Accuracy

Type of transcription	Service standard target	Error rate
		2014–15	2015–16	2016–17
Chamber proceedings	5 or fewer errors per 100 pages, as notified by customers	1.75 errors	1.81 errors	2.59 errors*
Committee hearings (Parliament House and interstate)	5 or fewer errors per 100 pages, as notified by customers	6.36 errors	2.33 errors	15.81 errors^

* Total pages 21,320

^ Total pages 16,561

Further analysis of Hansard is addressed in the Annual Performance Statements.

Table 18: Hansard—Timeliness—Committees

Committee-agreed timeframe	Service standard target	Percentage delivered within service standards
		2014–15	2015–16	2016–17
Delivery by next business day	95.00%	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%
Delivery within 1–3 business days	95.00%	100.00%	98.00%	95.61%
Delivery within 3–5 business days	95.00%	97.20%	91.00%	97.37%

Table 19: Access to ParlView on the Australian Parliament House website

	2015–16	2016–17
Country with most views	Australia 221,355 views 92% of total views	Australia 243,563 views 90.2% of total views
Within Australia	Canberra 60,826 views 27.5% of total views	Canberra 80,895 views 33.2% of total views
Highest daily view	6 February 2016 7,000 views	19 October 2016 7,359 views