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 2436 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Siobhian Brown
I look forward to all members taking part in the forthcoming budget process, and I recognise the constraints on its budget that the Scottish Government has due to continuing United Kingdom Government austerity and the sustained impact of high inflation due to the disastrous Tory budget of Liz Truss, which was announced this time last year.
We have limited levers available to us to increase our spending power in the face of the UK Government’s failure to ensure that public spending responds to the real challenges that people face in their lives; that is a reality.
I hope that the UK Government’s autumn statement realises the situation that the UK cost of living crisis is causing for people and increases the Scottish Government’s budget, but I am not going to hold my breath.
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Siobhian Brown
We are maintaining front-line services by having a higher number of firefighters than there is in other parts of the UK. The latest statistics show that, as of 31 March 2022, there were 6.1 firefighters per 10,000 of the population in England. If that ratio was replicated in Scotland, we would have just over 3,342 firefighters, but we had 6,225 firefighters in place at the end of March 2023, which is 11.3 firefighters per 10,000 of the population.
I am also pleased to say that, in February, firefighters accepted a two-year pay offer that runs from July 2022 to the end of June 2024.
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Siobhian Brown
The hate crime strategy makes a number of commitments, including improved support for victims, improving data and evidence and developing effective approaches to prevention. We will shortly publish a delivery plan to set out our activity over the next two years. One of the key priorities will be to improve hate crime data. We are also committed to on-going lived experience engagement, to help us to understand if our interventions are working. The hate crime strategic partnership group will oversee the progress of the delivery plan.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Siobhian Brown
We all share the horror at recent reported attacks and deaths due to XL bully dogs, and my thoughts are with all of those impacted.
We have noted the intention of the United Kingdom Government to take steps to introduce a ban on American XL bully dogs. Last Friday, Scottish Government officials met with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs officials and officials from Wales and Northern Ireland to discuss and hear more about the UK Government’s proposed approach. The UK Government plans to convene an expert group to specify a legal definition of the American XL bully. The group will consist of a body of people concerned with animal welfare, veterinary science and practice and breeds of dogs, and it will include representatives from the police and the four nations. That work, when carried out, will inform our consideration of any ban moving forward.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Siobhian Brown
The vast majority of dog owners are responsible people who take good care of their animals, but a small minority of owners fail to keep their dogs under proper control and do not have the same responsible attitude as the general public does. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that that is addressed.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Siobhian Brown
I agree with the member that what matters is making a careful, evidence-based decision that is focused on protecting public safety in Scotland. We are committed to giving full consideration to the issue, to ensure that we arrive at the correct decision. It is clear from the UK Government’s announcement that there are a wide range of views in the area, from experts and members of the public, and it is imperative that the Scottish Government, in moving forward, considers all voices. I do not currently have a timescale for the consultation, but I will keep the member updated.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Siobhian Brown
We have established an operational working group involving local authorities, Police Scotland, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and other key stakeholders to progress that important work, and we publish updated statutory guidance to help local authorities to carry out their functions under the control of dogs legislation.
I know that there is a lot of concern out there in the general public and among people who may have certain breeds of dogs, so it is important to get the message across and emphasise that, if a dog is a banned breed, that does not automatically mean that it will be put down. There are conditions that can be met, such as having the dog neutered or spayed or keeping the dog muzzled in public, and the dog can be placed on the index of exempted dogs by the court. That index is operated by DEFRA on a UK-wide basis.
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 14 September 2023
Siobhian Brown
We provide Scottish Government grant funding and work with our partner the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, which has supported and promoted gas safety week for many years.
RoSPA is active in the promotion of gas and carbon monoxide safety, and it represents the Scottish Government’s interests in the stakeholder forum of the all-party parliamentary carbon monoxide group. RoSPA is also working with a gas distribution network to develop a new web hub on carbon monoxide and it has just launched two surveys to assess people’s awareness of the prevention of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 14 September 2023
Siobhian Brown
Duties relating to the maintenance of appliances that are applicable to landlords are set out in United Kingdom legislation. Through our partners, RoSPA, we have promoted via social media and newsletters the Gas Safe Register’s advice to check gas appliances every year and to check that an engineer is Gas Safe registered.
Going forward, RoSPA is developing two surveys aimed at private landlords and the general public respectively to assess their awareness of carbon monoxide poisoning and what they should do to prevent it. The web hub will be developed to address the shortfall of information covering safety and responsibility.
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Siobhian Brown
It is for the Scottish Law Commission to establish a timetable for its work, but I expect the commission to publish its recommendations by mid-2024. The Scottish Government will, of course, give careful consideration to those recommendations, and I will be happy to meet Marie McNair and the Clydebank Asbestos Group to discuss them when we receive them.
