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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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Community Planning Inquiry (Post-legislative Scrutiny of the Community Empowerment Act 2015)
Meeting date: 28 February 2023
Marie McNair
I have a final question, but I think that it has been covered. What are the biggest challenges and barriers to CPPs making the impacts that the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 anticipated?
Meeting of the Parliament
LGBT+ History Month
Meeting date: 28 February 2023
Marie McNair
It is a pleasure to speak in this debate to mark LGBT+ history month, and I congratulate Joe FitzPatrick on securing the debate and on his thoughtful and passionate opening speech. I pay tribute to his work as convener of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee.
LGBT+ history month is marked in February, across the UK, as an opportunity to connect with and reflect on the past and present of the LGBT+ community, celebrate LGBT+ culture and progress towards equality, and explore the lessons that history can teach us for the future. This year’s UK theme celebrates LGBT+ people’s contribution to cinema and film from behind the lens.
In my constituency, the rainbow flag was raised at Solidarity Plaza in Clydebank to mark LGBT+ history month. That has been happening since 2008. The initiative has cross-party support in recognition of the need to maintain the momentum of equality.
I pay tribute to all LGBT+ constituents, groups, organisations and campaigners for equality. Much has been achieved by strong, determined and resolute campaigning. Now, Scotland is considered one of the most progressive countries in Europe when it comes to LGBT+ equality.
That equality has been hard fought for and the journey has been difficult for many people. Over that journey, the repeal of section 28 was secured and the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 extended the right to adopt to same-sex couples. The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill was passed on 4 February 2014 and the first same-sex marriage took place on 31 December 2014—the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 is considered to be one of the most progressive such laws in the world. The Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Act 2018 pardoned men who had been historically convicted as a result of same-sex activity and put in place a system whereby such convictions may be removed from the record and disregarded. The Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2019 introduced into the census, for the first time, questions on sexual orientation and trans status. In addition, Scotland is the first country to embed LGBT-inclusive education in the curriculum.
We must celebrate the progress that has been made and remember the people who did so much to ensure that it was achieved. However, lessons have been learned that show that we cannot be complacent. The Equality Network highlights that our LGBT community
“experience high levels of hate crime”.
We must drive on with the message of zero tolerance towards hateful behaviour.
The current impasse regarding the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill must be fixed. We must move to end conversion practices in Scotland, and we must strive instead to support and celebrate people for who they are.
It is clear that Scotland has made significant progress since way back, when the decriminalisation of homosexuality came into force in 1981, but we must keep going, to ensure that we do not take a step backwards. Let us all be honest: recent debates have created a difficult atmosphere for our LGBT+ community, which should be a real cause for concern. Even more than ever, Parliament’s message must be loud and clear: that we want to secure equality for our LGBT+ community. The journey is not finished.
In the contributions that we make in this debate on LGBT+ history month, we can show that we have learned the lessons of history and that we promote an inclusive and progressive Scotland that secures the talents of all our people.
18:05Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Marie McNair
I have a final question. As we are pushed for time, I will ask it quickly, and I hope that your response will be quick. Do any of the witnesses have any comments about the impact of the legislation on student tenancies? Do you agree with the Scottish Government’s plan to suspend the rent cap for those tenancies?
I put that question to any of the witnesses. You might not be able to answer it; if not, just say.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Marie McNair
Thank you. Can you provide more detail on how the Scottish Government intends to monitor and review the impact of the short-term lets licensing regime, with a particular focus on residential amenity, housing markets and the tourist economy?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Marie McNair
Do you have any comments on the impact of legislation on student tenancies? Do you agree with the Scottish Government’s plans to suspend the rent cap on such tenancies? I will go first to Sarah-Jane Laing.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Marie McNair
Good morning to the panel. It is good to see you.
As you are aware, the legislation required the Scottish ministers to ensure that tenants who were affected by the rent cap and the moratorium on evictions received appropriate information, advice and support on the measures that were in place. How effective has the Scottish Government been in doing that, and should anything else change? I ask Mike Callaghan to start.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Marie McNair
Thanks for that.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Marie McNair
Is there anything that local government could do?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Marie McNair
Sherina, is there anything you want to add?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Marie McNair
I thank the panellists for joining us this afternoon. I have asked previous panels this question, although I have slightly amended it. Could the Scottish Government take further measures to support councils and landlords to assist tenants through the cost of living crisis?
