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 1156 contributions
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Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Crisis in Ukraine: Impact on Food Supply Chain in Scotland
Meeting date: 27 April 2022
Karen Adam
The fishing and agriculture industries face a challenging time, to put it mildly, in relation to labour. What impact has the war in Ukraine had on that issue? If the situation is now more complex, what impacts might we need to incorporate into on-going solution finding?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Crisis in Ukraine: Impact on Food Supply Chain in Scotland
Meeting date: 27 April 2022
Karen Adam
Could I go to Scott Walker, please? What are the implications for farmers who are looking for seasonal workers, and for Ukrainian workers who are here already?
10:45Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Crisis in Ukraine: Impact on Food Supply Chain in Scotland
Meeting date: 27 April 2022
Karen Adam
That question also goes to Steven Thomson.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Crisis in Ukraine: Impact on Food Supply Chain in Scotland
Meeting date: 27 April 2022
Karen Adam
No, that is fine. I will pass and let somebody else in.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
End Greyhound Racing in Scotland (PE1758)
Meeting date: 20 April 2022
Karen Adam
Good morning, everyone. I thank the witnesses for their evidence so far. Gill Docherty spoke about the petition gaining quite a lot of traction. Did I hear you say that you go trackside sometimes?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
End Greyhound Racing in Scotland (PE1758)
Meeting date: 20 April 2022
Karen Adam
Could you give us some understanding of public opinion on greyhound racing, given that there is now only one track active in Scotland?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
End Greyhound Racing in Scotland (PE1758)
Meeting date: 20 April 2022
Karen Adam
Correct me if I am wrong, but I am guessing that much of your work is about raising awareness. Do you have any anecdotal evidence of talking to people and raising awareness? Is there enough awareness of the issues? Are the people who go to the greyhound tracks aware of what is going on?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Karen Adam
I really enjoyed what May Dunsmuir said about BSL and Makaton. We often forget that a lot can get lost in translation. Ensuring that there is really effective communication is important, and it is great to hear about the work in those areas.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Karen Adam
Good morning to both witnesses. It is nice to see you here today.
I would like to ask a question within the context of the pandemic, which has highlighted quite a few issues for a number of demographics. With regard to how the pandemic has affected children’s participation in decision making, have any new issues been highlighted or have there been any extra difficulties that you have seen?
10:15Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Karen Adam
I thank members of the panel for their testimony, which has been fascinating. It has been interesting to hear how far we have come. Fifty years ago, it would not have been understood how important it is to validate a child, how traumatising invalidation can be and how important boundaries and consent are. Gone are the days when children were seen merely as immature adults; they are now seen as being their own person. May Dunsmuir touched on that when she spoke about the young person who wanted a suit. I have kept reflecting on that throughout the discussion. The fact that that young person wanted to be taken seriously and wanted to be seen as an equal in the room spoke volumes. The point that was made about having equal standing at the table is really important. I thank members of the panel for what they have said; it certainly offers us food for thought.
Sheriffs and summary sheriffs do not communicate directly with children a great deal. However, we know that effective communication underpins the entire legal process and that ensuring that everyone involved is understood and understands is extremely important. Can any decision maker be trained to work with children and young people, or are only specific decision makers with specialist skills equipped for that task?
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