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 763 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget 2023-24
Meeting date: 19 January 2023
Emma Roddick
We, as a committee, have taken an interest in how the Government uses human rights budgeting. Can the cabinet secretary give an example of where spending allocations have been changed following an equality and human rights impact assessment, and can she advise how we, as a committee, and the wider public can see how human rights considerations have affected budget decisions?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget 2023-24
Meeting date: 19 January 2023
Emma Roddick
That is really helpful. The equality and fairer Scotland budget statement explicitly lists the right to an adequate standard of living in almost every portfolio—not just the cabinet secretary’s portfolio. Is that a reflection of the Scottish Government’s priorities, as well as the overall efforts to realise human rights?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget 2023-24
Meeting date: 19 January 2023
Emma Roddick
The discretionary housing payment is just one example of many ways in which the Scottish Government is mitigating the impact of decisions that were made elsewhere. Will the cabinet secretary expand on any targeted action that the Scottish Government has asked the UK Government to take to help tackle the cost of living crisis?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 19 December 2022
Emma Roddick
As a survivor, I am very aware that there has been a lot of reference to survivors’ evidence—[Inaudible.]—particularly in relation to rape crisis services. Do you acknowledge that the bill does not impact on how those services currently operate? As Pam Duncan-Glancy outlined, self-ID is the system that rape crisis services in Scotland currently use. Do you acknowledge that there is no single opinion among survivors on the issue?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 19 December 2022
Emma Roddick
I would like to ask a brief follow-up question. Would it not be right to infer from your suspicion that making the process easier would result in more people making use of it that the current system needs the reform that is proposed and that that reform is the right one to make?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 19 December 2022
Emma Roddick
As a non-member of the committee, I want to recognise the amount of work that the committee has done over at least a dozen sessions and a hefty stage 2 debate. Earlier, you mentioned that you believe that the bill is being rushed. The bill has been six years in the making, with two full-scale public consultations, and the committee has had many evidence sessions and has produced a very thorough report. How much more would have had to be done for you to consider that the bill is not being rushed through?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 19 December 2022
Emma Roddick
You have talked a lot about the toxicity of the debate in the UK and the effect that that is having on trans people in particular but also on cisgender women who, as you have said, have every reason to be afraid of predatory men. Elected representatives and celebrities linking this legislation to that separate issue will cause fear. Have you seen that happen on a similar scale in other countries that have implemented similar procedures? Do you have advice for politicians on how to address those concerns? Perhaps you could highlight best practice that you have seen elsewhere.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Emma Roddick
Since last week’s meeting, we have had some helpful information from the Scottish Parliament information centre about which weather stations have triggered cold weather payments in the past, and how many times. Six of the seven areas with the highest level of fuel poverty are in my region—the Highlands and Islands—but some of those areas, such as Stornoway, have not triggered any cold weather payment in many years. Where they have done so—for example, in Wick, Lerwick and Kirkwall—there tends to be one trigger a year, despite the challenges that exist there. Will the winter heating payment be a move in the right direction in tackling fuel poverty?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Emma Roddick
Thanks, minister.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Emma Roddick
A few colleagues have talked about the coldest parts of Scotland but have often missed out my region, the Highlands and Islands. We must be clear: cold weather payments are not going to the coldest places in Scotland. They are certainly not going to the coldest homes in Scotland. Rather, they are going to the coldest weather stations. The minister addressed the fact that wind chill is not measured and that six days of -2°C will not trigger a payment. The people who struggle the most with energy bills in my region are in the Western Isles, the Northern Isles and areas of the Highlands. They have not been getting cold weather payments, but they are going to get £50 this winter.
