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: 23 December 2021
Siobhian Brown
Good morning, and welcome to the 16th meeting in 2021 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee. This is our last meeting before the recess.
We will take evidence on the latest ministerial statement and on subordinate legislation. I welcome to the meeting John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery; Professor Jason Leitch, the national clinical director; Amanda Gordon, the deputy director of local interventions, outbreak management; and Derek Grieve, the head of the operational vaccines division. Thank you for your attendance.
Deputy First Minister, would you like to make some remarks before we move to questions?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 23 December 2021
Siobhian Brown
I will bring you back in, Mr Rowley, but, first, it would be helpful to have clarification on self-isolation before we finalise the bill report. Will that be available to the committee before 13 January?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 23 December 2021
Siobhian Brown
We all understand the importance of boosters, but 10 per cent of the population are still unvaccinated, and those people are often in our larger cities. A constituent of mine wrote to me recently after watching our meeting on vaccine hesitancy, which took place on 9 December. Angela, in Ayr, who is about the same age as me, said:
“Hi Siobhian,
I wanted to get in touch to let you know that I am just out of the hospital after contracting life threatening Covid-19. I was hospitalised for 9 weeks. I was blue lighted from Ayr, to Crosshouse and was in HDU and ICU with my oxygen level at 38%. I had been unwell for 4/5 days prior and was advised to self-isolate and drink plenty of water and take paracetamol.
Unfortunately, things progressed and I don’t remember much apart from seeing my fiancé and the doctor, then in an ambulance ... Unfortunately, I had not been vaccinated, not because I was against it or anything. I had just landed a new job and missed my appointment as I had to go down south for training ... I sat and watched patients come and go from my hospital bed in HDU, they were a lot older than me, people in their 70s with COPD and Covid but had their vaccinations, and yes they may have been poorly and still required oxygen ... but they were going home after 2 weeks and I watched this happen week after week and felt like an idiot for not getting myself vaccinated. I nearly died, was touch and go a few times ... do not think this thing isn’t real, it’s very real and doesn’t look as if it’s going away anytime soon.
I have been left with Fibrosis and a cluster of clots in my lung, I have panic attacks and palpitations, my anxiety is through the roof, I have covid flashes ... I lost over 3 stone in 5 weeks and have lost most of my muscle mass in my legs and can’t walk from livingroom to kitchen without having to sit down and catch my breath for a few minutes ... I can’t stand for any length of time or go up stairs, I literally am having to train myself to walk again ... I could go on, but I won’t.
I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else, if anyone is hesitant about getting vaccinated then don’t, because however rotten you may feel after getting your jag is nothing compared to nearly losing your life.”
How can we get that powerful message about the importance of getting vaccinated out to the general public, especially to the 10 per cent of people who still have not gone for their first jab?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 23 December 2021
Siobhian Brown
That concludes our consideration of this item, and I thank the Deputy First Minister and his officials for their evidence today.
Item 2 is consideration of the motion on the made affirmative instrument that was considered during the previous item. Deputy First Minister, do you have any further remarks on the SSI before we take the motion?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Water Environment
Meeting date: 22 December 2021
Siobhian Brown
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am a sitting councillor on South Ayrshire Council.
I thank the minister for the very positive update and the welcome news from SEPA about improvement works at the Tarbolton landfill site, which is adjacent to my constituency. It has been extremely concerning that the water quality at Ayr south beach has been classified as “poor” for four consecutive years. I put on record my thanks for all the collaborative hard work that has gone on since 2018 to improve the water quality. The water quality has been classified as “good” this year, which is very welcome. I also thank local groups including Ayr Rotary club, Alloway Rotary club and the don’t trash Ayr group—
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 22 December 2021
Siobhian Brown
Over the past few months, it has become apparent that ventilation plays an important part in reducing transmission of Covid variants. How is the Scottish Government ensuring that the appropriate risk assessments are conducted for indoor teaching environments?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Water Environment
Meeting date: 22 December 2021
Siobhian Brown
What steps can the Scottish Government take to assist in continuing to build on that work and to ensure that protections are strengthened for our beaches, beach users and marine life?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 22 December 2021
Siobhian Brown
To ask the Scottish Government what measures are being put in place to keep pupils warm while they are in classrooms over the coming months, given the need for adequate ventilation to mitigate the risks of Covid-19. (S6O-00579)
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Siobhian Brown
That concludes our consideration of this item. I thank the Deputy First Minister and his officials for their evidence during these worrying times.
The third agenda item is consideration of the motions on the made affirmative instruments on which we took evidence under the previous agenda item.
Deputy First Minister, would you like to make any further remarks on the Scottish statutory instruments?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Siobhian Brown
Thank you, Deputy First Minister.
I note that no member has indicated that they are not content for the motions to be moved en bloc.
Motions moved,
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 8) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/440) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 9) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/441) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 10) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/443) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 11) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/454) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 12) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/455) be approved.—[John Swinney]
