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 1311 contributions
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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Local Elected Office (Barriers to Participation)
Meeting date: 6 December 2022
Marie McNair
Thank you.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Annual Report 2021-22
Meeting date: 6 December 2022
Marie McNair
Thank you for clarifying that.
My next question is about staff turnover, which was 13.8 per cent in 2021-22. Do you know how that compares with other public bodies as well as with previous years?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Annual Report 2021-22
Meeting date: 6 December 2022
Marie McNair
Thank you for that. I have no further questions, convener.
Meeting of the Parliament
Carers Rights Day 2022
Meeting date: 6 December 2022
Marie McNair
I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate and to mark carers rights day. I congratulate Paul O’Kane for securing the debate and I have also signed the motion.
I put on record my support for the many carers in my constituency and thank them for what they do. During my time as part of the nursing team at the St Margaret of Scotland Hospice, I saw at first hand how caring and compassionate unpaid carers are, and, as I have said here before, I saw their unwavering and unconditional love and support. I also take the opportunity to praise the staff and volunteers of Carers of West Dunbartonshire and Carers Link East Dunbartonshire for providing outstanding support to carers in my constituency. I also thank Carers Scotland and Myeloma UK for their helpful briefings and for their on-going efforts to highlight the pressures faced by unpaid carers.
A quarter of all carers are struggling to make ends meet and more than a third have had no break from caring in the past year. We know that there are approximately 800,000 unpaid adult carers in Scotland and that it would cost an estimated £10 billion every year to replace the care that they provide.
Carers are among those hardest hit by the cost of living crisis, with many not eligible for support payments. For far too long, unpaid carers have been given a raw deal by the social security system. For example, since carers allowance was introduced in 1976, successive United Kingdom Governments have refused to align the amount paid with other earning replacement benefits. Both Labour and Tory Governments gave no priority to carers and UK policy seems to continue to be the same. There should surely be parity at UK level with other earning replacement benefits. Matching our policy in Scotland would bring more to the budget to fund the radical overhaul of carers allowance and shape our new carers assistance benefit.
This Parliament has made welcome changes to the financial support provided to carers, including introducing the supplement to the young carers grant, but we know that more needs to be done. Just some of the issues that must be addressed include: the earnings limits; the bar to students making claims; help for those caring for more than one person; and support for those with underlying entitlement.
Carers deserve better and the Scottish Parliament must do all that it can to ease their burden, create better policy and improve levels of support. That ambition should be matched by Westminster, but it is not, no matter who is in Government. Look at the payments going out to carers this week: the Scottish carers supplement is £245.70; the Westminster Christmas bonus for carers is £10.
Meeting of the Parliament
Carers Rights Day 2022
Meeting date: 6 December 2022
Marie McNair
Before the Labour Party asks us to do more, it should catch up with us. Its record in Westminster shows that it has ignored carers for years.
To return to my speech, there is a real contrast in approaches to levels of support. The Tories introduced the Christmas payment in 1972, Labour kept it and it is still set at £10 today. It is estimated that, if it had kept pace with inflation, the Christmas bonus would be worth in excess of £100 today. Surely, given the impact of the cost of living crisis on carers, all parties must believe that they deserve more than a measly £10. Do we not all believe that it should be adjusted, recalculated and paid at a rate that values carers for what they do? Actions are better than words.
In the short time that I have had, I have focused on the social security system. Although that is important, especially now, carers need much more than that. This Parliament should unite to provide a compassionate system of support that does carers justice and recognises the massive contribution that they make.
Meeting of the Parliament
Carers Rights Day 2022
Meeting date: 6 December 2022
Marie McNair
Does the member believe that the Westminster Government should align carers allowance at least with any replacement benefits and uprate the Christmas bonus to £100?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 29 November 2022
Marie McNair
Thank you, Mike. Does anyone else want to comment further? I know that a lot of that has been referred to already.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 29 November 2022
Marie McNair
Okay. Do you recognise the situation that the minister described last week? You have said that people feel as though they are being pushed from pillar to post if they have a complaint or concern. A lot of that has been discussed already, but I just throw the matter out there in case anyone wants to expand on what has been mentioned.
Sophie Lawson, I am sorry to put you on the spot, but do you want to comment?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Planning Framework 4
Meeting date: 29 November 2022
Marie McNair
Thank you for that reassurance. Some planning stakeholders are concerned that delivery continues to be the weakest area across the NPF4 documents. Can you assure us that the policy priorities that are set out in NPF4 will be delivered?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Planning Framework 4
Meeting date: 29 November 2022
Marie McNair
Some planning stakeholders are concerned that delivery continues to be the weakest area across the NPF4 documents. How can you assure us that the planning priorities that are set out in NPF4 will be delivered?
