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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Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
I will bring in Leanna MacLarty.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
Daniel Johnson raises an emotive issue. I understand his point about there being cause to ban fireworks sales to individuals, but unfortunately that is not currently within the competence of the Scottish Parliament. I will be more than happy to meet councils to discuss the way forward.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
I have to disagree with Katy Clark on that. The act was brought in as a preventative measure; it was not a short-term quick fix. Control zones have been developed to support the long-term cultural change on fireworks. As I have said, such change will not happen quickly. A programme of work has progressed, at pace, to successfully commence firework control zones, in line with the original timescales, on 22 June 2023. I know that my officials are engaging with all local authorities and are making progress, and the zones might be in place for next year.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
Just for clarity, I am a minister, not a cabinet secretary.
We have increased the police funding year on year since 2016-17, investing more than £11.6 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013. Sentencing guidelines are, of course, set by the Scottish Sentencing Council, and it is totally inappropriate for politicians to interfere with the independent judicial sector. It is up to the courts and prosecutors to decide on what action is taken against individuals who commit such crimes.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
There is simply no excuse for the sort of behaviour that was witnessed recently in Dumfries town centre and elsewhere. It puts everybody at risk. I am grateful to Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and partners for their swift attendance and actions at the scene to minimise the damage from the reckless use of fireworks and the irresponsible throwing of projectiles into a public area.
We are committed to ensuring that the police and local authorities have the powers and the resources to address antisocial behaviour. That includes formal warnings, fixed-penalty notices and antisocial behaviour orders. The Scottish Government has increased police funding year on year since 2016-17, with £1.45 billion being invested this year alone. There are 379 more police officers than there were in 2007, and Scotland continues to have more police officers per capita than England and Wales.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
There have been two arrests so far. The police are looking at intelligence and there will be more arrests in the coming days. Mr Kerr says that we should change the record, but, as I have already said, it is up to the courts and prosecutors to decide on what action is taken; it is not up to politicians. It would be totally inappropriate for the SNP Government to try to influence that. I do not know whether the Conservatives would try to do so if they were ever to be in Government, but it would be totally inappropriate if they did.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
I do not know the intelligence so far on the incidents, and we are waiting for the police outcomes. I know that it has been reported that some of the youths were being encouraged by adults.
With significant Scottish Government engagement, a broad range of planning and preparation is done every year by the emergency services and others to ensure that the existing laws are adhered to. However, on effective preparatory work, there will always be a challenge and a threat for enforcement agencies once fireworks and other potential weapons fall into the hands of those with criminal minds.
Introducing stricter measures at the point of purchase, including via the new proxy purchase offence, will help to ensure that fireworks do not end up with those who may misuse them. Not all offences involving fireworks are prosecuted under fireworks misuse laws, and the most serious offenders may be prosecuted for common-law offences such as assault and culpable and reckless misconduct. The link with fireworks may not be identified clearly in the data collected relating to those offences.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
The Scottish Government acknowledges that its prevention services are crucial to preventing crime in Scotland’s communities. Through the violence prevention framework, which was published in May this year, we are implementing our public health approach to preventing violence from happening in the first instance. That is backed with more than £2 million of investment from this year’s budget. We are the only Government in the United Kingdom that is reinvesting money recovered from the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 directly back into communities across Scotland. Our cashback for communities initiative delivers diversionary activities for young people, who are most at risk of being involved in antisocial behaviour, offending and reoffending, to support the communities that are most affected by crime.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
First, I want to express my gratitude to all our emergency services for their work over the weekend. All attacks against them are totally despicable.
The Scottish Government fully supports the courts using the extensive laws and powers to protect emergency workers, including the new statutory aggravation for attacks on emergency services through the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022.
As part of the annual review of the police-led multi-agency operation moonbeam, there will be an analysis of the incidents that took place over the weekend and a response taken.
The Scottish Community Safety Network’s report on antisocial behaviour has been published today, and I have accepted the report’s recommendation that we consider how best to develop our long-term approach to preventing and tackling antisocial behaviour. I will therefore be convening an independently chaired working group on antisocial behaviour.
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 2 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
I will be clear: the Scottish Government is not in dispute with the FBU. The FBU campaigns on behalf of its members, as all trade unions do, and we share the aim of having an effective Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to keep our communities safe. I meet the FBU regularly and am next scheduled to meet it this month.
