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 1562 contributions
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COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Long Covid Inquiry
Meeting date: 23 February 2023
Siobhian Brown
That is helpful. What training on long Covid is available for healthcare professionals? How can healthcare professionals, including GPs, be encouraged to undertake training on long Covid?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Long Covid Inquiry
Meeting date: 23 February 2023
Siobhian Brown
I am sorry, Mr Fairlie, but we are at 20 past 10, so I will have to stop the questioning there.
I apologise that we have run over time. I thank the witnesses for their evidence and giving us their time. If they would like to raise any further points with the committee, they can do so in writing to the clerks. We will be happy to liaise with the witnesses about how to do that.
I will briefly suspend the meeting to allow for a changeover of witnesses.
10:20 Meeting suspended.
10:24 On resuming—
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Long Covid Inquiry
Meeting date: 23 February 2023
Siobhian Brown
Thank you, Janis. Manira Ahmad, this might be a good question for you. What support do children with long Covid have when they are transitioning into adult services? For example, if they developed long Covid when they were 15 and are now coming up to 18, how do they transition into adult services? Is there support for them?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Long Covid Inquiry
Meeting date: 23 February 2023
Siobhian Brown
I will cover the issue of long Covid in kids. The committee had an informal session with family members of children suffering from long Covid; some of those children have not been to school in years. It was quite harrowing to hear their stories. Family members felt that there was a lack of support and diagnosis for children suffering from long Covid.
Is there sufficient knowledge and understanding among health professionals in relation to long Covid in children? Does that impact on diagnosis of long Covid in children? Manira, would you like to come in?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Long Covid Inquiry
Meeting date: 23 February 2023
Siobhian Brown
We have heard from previous witnesses that there is a lack of awareness among local GPs. However, when I went to my GP last week, there were signs up all over the place asking people to talk to a doctor if they have long Covid. I think that the position varies from place to place.
We move to questions from Murdo Fraser.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Long Covid Inquiry
Meeting date: 23 February 2023
Siobhian Brown
Good morning, and welcome to the fourth meeting in 2023 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee. We continue our inquiry into long Covid. I welcome Jane-Claire Judson, chief executive officer of Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland; Dr Amy Small, clinical adviser to Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, who joins us online; Dr David Shackles, joint chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland; Lorraine Crothers, board member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, who joins us online; and Dr Claire Taylor, from Tayside Complete Health Ltd and expert adviser on long Covid to the World Health Network, who will be joining us online shortly.
Thank you for giving us your time and for your written submissions. We estimate that the session will run up to about 10 past 10. Each member will have about 10 minutes to speak to the witnesses and ask their questions.
If a witness who is attending remotely would like to respond to an issue being discussed, I ask them to type “R” in the chat box, please, and I will bring them in. I am keen to ensure that everyone gets an opportunity to speak. I apologise in advance because, if time runs on too much, I might have to interrupt members or witnesses in the interests of brevity.
I invite the witnesses to briefly introduce themselves.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Long Covid Inquiry
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Siobhian Brown
Good morning, and welcome to the third meeting in 2023 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee.
This morning, we will take evidence as part of our inquiry into long Covid. I welcome Rob Gowans, policy and public affairs manager at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland; Ian Mullen, from Covid Action Scotland; Sammie Mcfarland, who is chief executive officer and founder of Long Covid Kids, who joins us online; Jane Ormerod, who is the chair of Long Covid Scotland; Stuart McIver, from Long Covid Scotland; and Michelle Powell Gonzalez, from the Long Covid Support Group: Scotland, who also joins us online. We have received apologies from Donna Convery of Long Covid Support Group: Scotland.
I thank the witnesses for giving us their time and for their written submissions. We estimate that the session will run until about 11 o’clock, and each member should have about 10 minutes to speak to the panel and ask their questions.
For witnesses who are attending remotely, if you would like to respond to any issue that is being discussed, please type R in the chat function, and we will try to bring you in. I am keen to ensure that everybody gets an opportunity to speak, so I apologise in advance for the fact that, if time runs on a bit too much, I might have to interrupt members or witnesses in the interests of brevity.
I invite the witnesses to introduce themselves briefly, starting with the witnesses who are joining us online.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Long Covid Inquiry
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Siobhian Brown
Thank you. We turn to questions, and I will begin with the theme of public awareness of long Covid. The Scottish Government has committed to delivering a targeted long Covid awareness campaign, in conjunction with community pharmacies, but a lot of the submissions that we have received so far in our inquiry have highlighted that there is a low level of awareness of long Covid. What more could or should be done to raise public awareness and recognition of long Covid? Stuart, do you want to go first?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Long Covid Inquiry
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Siobhian Brown
Thank you, Sammie. We move to questions from Murdo Fraser.
