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.
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Displaying 931 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 23 December 2021
Marie McNair
Not at this point, thank you.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 23 December 2021
Marie McNair
We might think that an increase in the number of people who are motivated to claim ADP will result in an increase in claims for carers allowance and carers allowance supplement. Is there a direct correlation between two or more of those, or do you think that the memories of the barriers to claiming carers allowance will still deter some people, to an extent?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 23 December 2021
Marie McNair
Which proposals should take centre stage at a time of ever-emerging Covid pressures on the budget?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Adult Disability Payment
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Marie McNair
This is the same question that I asked our first panel to aid our understanding of the 20m rule, which was introduced by the Tory Government at Westminster. What was the rationale for introducing it? Was there any impact assessment? Is there any suggestion that we will move away from it, given the condemnation of the policy? I will put that to Bill Scott and Keith Park. I know that Bill Scott has spoken about the issue already, but it would be helpful if you could expand on your response.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Adult Disability Payment
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Marie McNair
We want to encourage claims for ADP. Although it is early days, is the panel aware of any lessons that we can learn from the initial implementation of child disability payment? I pose that question to Frank McKillop.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Adult Disability Payment
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Marie McNair
There were some welcome policy changes from PIP, but the Scottish Government’s stated priority is a safe and secure transfer from the DWP to Social Security Scotland. I want to explore the risks around transfers. Given your experience in the benefits system, can you comment on past experiences of transfers between DWP benefits? Did they meet their stated timescales? I ask Ed Pybus and Richard Gass to comment again, please.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Adult Disability Payment
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Marie McNair
Thank you for your attendance at the committee, which is very much appreciated. To aid our understanding of the 20m mobility rule in PIP, which was introduced by the Tory Government at Westminster, will you explain what the rationale was for introducing it? Was there an impact assessment? Is there any suggestion that the UK Government will move away from it, given the condemnation of the policy?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Adult Disability Payment
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Marie McNair
I welcome the Scottish Government’s approach to terminal illness. It takes a more compassionate and, as far as I understand, a more generous approach by awarding the enhanced rates of the mobility and daily living components of PIP. Is there any concern that that difference could create confusion? How can we minimise that? Is there any indication that the Westminster Government intends to learn from the Scottish approach to terminal illness policy?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Adult Disability Payment
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Marie McNair
It is addressed to anyone.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Adult Disability Payment
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Marie McNair
Does the panel welcome the approach to encouraging and supporting the submission of further evidence, given the DWP experience? What more can be done to get the message out that a different approach will be taken to evidence gathering?
