Official Report: search what was said in Parliament
The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
The Official Report search offers lots of different ways to find the information you’re looking for. The search is used as a professional tool by researchers and third-party organisations. It is also used by members of the public who may have less parliamentary awareness. This means it needs to provide the ability to run complex searches, and the ability to browse reports or perform a simple keyword search.
Searching by different views
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
- Report: this is the whole Official Report for a particular meeting of a committee or Parliament
- Item of business: this is each individual agenda item in an Official Report. For example, Portfolio Questions would be the item of business in a Meeting of the Parliament report
- Contribution: this is each time someone has made a spoken contribution to a meeting.
Depending on the kind of search you want to do, one of these views will be the best option. The default view is to show the report for each meeting of Parliament or a committee. For a simple keyword search, the results will be shown by item of business.
Search by MSP
When you choose to search by a particular MSP, the results returned will show each spoken contribution in Parliament or a committee, ordered by date with the most recent contributions first. This will usually return a lot of results, but you can refine your search by keyword, date and/or by meeting (committee or Chamber business).
We’ve chosen to display the entirety of each MSP’s contribution in the search results. This is intended to reduce the number of times that users need to click into an actual report to get the information that they’re looking for, but in some cases it can lead to very short contributions (“Yes.”) or very long ones (Ministerial statements, for example.) We’ll keep this under review and get feedback from users on whether this approach best meets their needs.
Searching by keyword
There are two types of keyword search:
- A keyword search without quotation marks will look for every instance of each word used and rank the results by frequency and proximity. It will also include variants of the keywords using “porter stemming”. This is when the search looks for the “stem” of a word regardless of its ending. So, for example, a search for [salmon farm] will return each instance of “salmon” and each instance of “farm” as well as potentially including results for “farms”, “farmed” and “farming”.
- A keyword search with quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase used. So, for example, a search for “salmon farm” in quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase.
Combining search filters
If you select an MSP’s name from the dropdown menu, and add a phrase in quotation marks to the keyword field, then the search will return only examples of when the MSP said those exact words. You can further refine this search by adding a date range or selecting a particular committee or Meeting of the Parliament.
More complex keyword searches
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
- a search for “salmon farm” AND “Loch Lomond” will return only results which include both exact phrases
- a search for “salmon farm” NOT “Loch Lomond” will return results for “salmon farm” but exclude results which also include “Loch Lomond”
- a search for “salmon farm” OR “Loch Lomond” will return all results for “salmon farm” and all results for “Loch Lomond” regardless of whether they appear together
Searching by date
There are two ways of searching by date.
You can either use the Start date and End date options to run a search across a particular date range. For example, you may know that a particular subject was discussed at some point in the last few weeks and choose a date range to reflect that.
Alternatively, you can use one of the pre-defined date ranges under “Select a time period”. These are:
- Current session (all Official Reports since the current sessions started)
- Last 6 months
- Last 12 months
- each of the previous sessions of Parliament. (Selecting the information icon above the “Select a time period” menu will give you the exact dates for each session.)
- All sessions
- You can also choose to select a custom date range, although adding a Start or End date will mean the search automatically defaults to this option.
If you search by an individual session, the list of MSPs and committees will automatically update to show only the MSPs and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of MSPs and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of MSPs and committees will update to show the information that was current at that time.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 1481 contributions
|
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Prevention of Homelessness Duties
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Jackie Dunbar
I note my entry in the register of members’ interests, which says that I am still a serving councillor at Aberdeen City Council.
I am pleased to speak on the Scottish Government’s motion, and I welcome the publication of the joint Scottish Government and COSLA consultation on prevention of homelessness duties. In Scotland, we already have strong rights for those who find themselves in a homelessness situation, but it is important that we strengthen the legislation around early intervention, to give people facing homelessness more choice and more control over where they live. Early action should be a shared public responsibility, and we should be looking to act as early as possible to ensure that disruption to people’s lives is minimised. At the end of the day, everyone should have a home to call their own, no matter who they are, what they do for a living or what they earn. It is their right to have somewhere they call home.
We all have a duty, which is why I asked Carol Mochan whether she agreed about the void situation. Aberdeen City Council currently has 1,200 council houses that are sitting empty, which costs our tenants and the housing revenue account £2 million. One thousand and two hundred council houses out of our stock of, I think, 22,000, is a large number, and they could go a long way in helping the homelessness situation.
Improving access to early interventions will, I hope, reduce the need to use temporary accommodation facilities. Although temporary accommodation provides a safety net for those at risk of homelessness, it can prove to be very expensive for local authorities and tenants alike. Ensuring that quick access to sustainable accommodation and suitable support is available if homelessness occurs will help to stop the cycle of homelessness that can happen. Putting in place adequate support to sustain existing tenancies will also save the individuals involved from the incredibly stressful and traumatic experience of going through the homelessness process to get rehoused.
At this point, I would like to say a big thank you to the team at Aberdeen City Council. Kay Diack and her homelessness unit do an absolutely brilliant job. Engaging with tenants who are facing homelessness has been successfully implemented in Aberdeen, and the council, in partnership with Turning Point, is running a housing first scheme to support tenants with multiple needs to move away from homelessness. Housing first is proven to be successful in supporting people who have histories of repeat homelessness and who experience multiple disadvantages into independent and stable accommodation. Once housed, they are provided with supportive services and connections to community-based support so that they sustain their housing and avoid returning to homelessness.
It is essential that we look to strengthen our existing homelessness prevention legislation and ensure that there is a duty on public bodies to ask people about their housing situation and take action if needed, as early intervention is absolutely key. Placing a legal duty on health and social care services, children’s services, police and other public bodies to ask and act to prevent homelessness really will be game changing for people who are potentially facing homelessness.
I whole-heartedly support the motion.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Prevention of Homelessness Duties
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Jackie Dunbar
Does the member agree that it might help the situation all around if local authorities could get their void properties up to scratch?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
National Planning Framework (Energy)
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Jackie Dunbar
Do we need some regional frameworks, or should it all be national? Some regions might have different needs from others.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
National Planning Framework (Energy)
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Jackie Dunbar
Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
National Planning Framework (Energy)
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Jackie Dunbar
I will go back to an earlier question about the Scottish Government’s offshore wind policy statement, so that I can get more clarity. Some witnesses agreed that changes need to be made to align NPF4 with the OWPS, but they did not say what those changes should be. I would like to dig down into that a little more. I cannot remember who said that changes need to be made, but I ask Morag Watson for her comments first.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
National Planning Framework (Energy)
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Jackie Dunbar
Thank you. Does Kirstanne Land have anything to add?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
National Planning Framework (Energy)
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Jackie Dunbar
This might be an unfair question, but how do you see that developing? What is needed for that to happen?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Budget 2022-23
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Jackie Dunbar
Before I ask my questions, I have a supplementary question on cybersecurity, cabinet secretary—I apologise if this is not within your remit. You were talking about what public agencies and local authorities need to do with regard to cybersecurity. Does the Scottish Government ask them to report back so that it has assurances that public agencies and local authorities have business continuity and disaster recovery plans in place? I am aware that that is not always the case.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Budget 2022-23
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Jackie Dunbar
My questions are about the transport part of your remit. The strategic transport projects review has 45 recommendations, one of which is to achieve a 20 per cent reduction in car kilometres by 2030—I am used to miles, not kilometres. We all recognise that reducing the amount of car travel will require a step change in how we use public transport, and that we will need to increase significantly the number of trips that we take using our bicycles, if we have them, or on foot.
How does this year’s budget compare to previous budgets on that? I am aware that, in the 20 years between 1999 and 2019, the average distance travelled by car increased, so I am interested to hear what the difference is in this year’s budget.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Budget 2022-23
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Jackie Dunbar
You have already touched on this next issue. We are, we hope, emerging from the coronavirus pandemic. How does the Scottish Government intend to support the rail and bus companies to recover over the next year or so and to increase the number of users?
