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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COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Siobhian Brown
We will now consider the next motion under the agenda item, and I invite the Deputy First Minister to move motion S6M-01529.
Motion moved,
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/349) be approved.—[John Swinney]
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Baseline Health Protection Measures
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Siobhian Brown
We move to agenda item 4, under which we are taking evidence on baseline health protection measures from a panel of ventilation experts. I welcome Dr Hywel Davies, who is the technical director of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers; Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, who is the director of the Centre for Climate Repair at the University of Cambridge; Professor Catherine Noakes, who is the professor of environmental engineering for buildings at the University of Leeds; and Professor Tim Sharpe, who is the head of architecture at the University of Strathclyde. We thank them all for giving us their time.
This is the first of four planned evidence sessions on baseline health protection measures, which are the main tools that we are using to respond to Covid-19. They include the steps that we are taking to enhance ventilation in our homes and workplaces and in settings where public services are delivered. This will be a short scoping session to allow us to consider the role that ventilation will play in lessening the impact of Covid-19, especially during the winter. We will also consider the role that ventilation might play in the recovery phase of the pandemic.
We hope that the session will inform further sessions that we plan to hold as part of our inquiry. We will hear from stakeholders in health and social care services, the hospitality, business and leisure sectors, and schools.
Will the witnesses briefly outline what they think are the main ventilation challenges that we should address as part of our response to Covid and our long-term recovery?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Baseline Health Protection Measures
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Siobhian Brown
Thank you, Dr Davies. Before I bring in Dr Fitzgerald, I note that we live in Scotland, which is very cold, we are now moving into winter and energy prices are increasing astronomically, so I hesitate a little bit at the suggestion that we should open our windows. I understand that we would do so for ventilation, but I wonder whether in reality it will happen when people cannot afford to pay their energy bills.
I will bring in Dr Fitzgerald at this point.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Baseline Health Protection Measures
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Siobhian Brown
I think that Professor Noakes has asked to speak.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Siobhian Brown
Under agenda item 2, the committee will take evidence on the ministerial statement on Covid-19, subordinate legislation and the other matters that are noted on the agenda. I welcome to the meeting our witnesses from the Scottish Government: John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery; Professor Jason Leitch, who is the national clinical director; Elizabeth Sadler, who is deputy director for Covid ready society; and Graham Fisher, who is deputy director in the legal directorate. I thank the witnesses for attending the meeting.
Deputy First Minister, would you like to make any remarks before we move to questions?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Siobhian Brown
Mr Fraser, motion S6M-01399 is about local authorities.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Siobhian Brown
Good morning, and welcome to the ninth meeting in 2021 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee. I give a warm welcome to Graham Simpson MSP, who is joining the committee this morning.
The first agenda item is a decision on whether to take in private agenda item 5 and all future consideration of the evidence that we will hear in future meetings. Do members agree to take those items in private?
Members indicated agreement.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Siobhian Brown
I am sorry, Mr Simpson, but we really have to move on. Perhaps I can ask Professor Leitch or the Deputy First Minister to respond.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 28 October 2021
Siobhian Brown
We are running a bit short of time, but Professor Leitch will be back next week, so we can ask him more general questions then.
Item 4 on the agenda is consideration of the motions on the affirmative instruments that we considered under the previous agenda item. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee have yet to consider the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment (No 5) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/359), so we will take the relevant motion at our meeting on 18 November.
I see that the minister does not wish to make any further comment on the instruments. If members are content for the motions to be moved en bloc, I invite the cabinet secretary to move the motions.
Motions moved,
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/322) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/328) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/343) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment (No 3) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/350) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment (No 4) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/357) be approved.—[Graeme Dey]
Motions agreed to.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 28 October 2021
Siobhian Brown
Good morning, and welcome to the eighth meeting in 2021 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee. I apologise for the slightly late start this morning.
The second agenda item is a decision on whether to take item 5, which will be consideration of evidence, in private. Do members agree to take item 5 in private?
Members indicated agreement.
