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 1537 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Ferry Services (Public Ownership)
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Katy Clark
Will the member take an intervention?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Ferry Services (Public Ownership)
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Katy Clark
Will Jamie Halcro Johnston give way?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
General Question Time
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Katy Clark
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and Police Scotland to discuss safe access for all women to clinics and hospitals. (S6O-00982)
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
General Question Time
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Katy Clark
Last week, at the end of 40 days of continuous demonstrations, there were 100 anti-abortion protesters outside the Queen Elizabeth university hospital’s maternity unit. Does the minister accept that women and the workforce are being harassed and that urgent action is needed to bring that type of behaviour to an end? Does she accept that we need to know that action is being taken urgently and that steps will be taken to ensure that such protests cannot continue? Will the Scottish Government have the courage to introduce Scotland-wide legislation to create buffer zones?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Ferry Services (Public Ownership)
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Katy Clark
The motion is very clear that the CalMac contract comes to an end in 2024. I have been raising the issue over the past year and asking what model of contract we will move to. It is clear that the current model does not work for the reasons that I outlined in my speech and that others will no doubt cover. Does the member not think that we should be debating that? Surely, we should.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Ferry Services (Public Ownership)
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Katy Clark
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I appreciate that Stuart McMillan would not have been able to take an intervention as he made his contribution remotely, but he criticised me directly for failing to declare an interest. I would like to take your guidance on how to correct that and put that on the record. I do not believe that I was required to declare an interest. However, at the beginning of my speech, I said very clearly that I have worked on these issues with the RMT and TSSA trade unions and with islanders, including members of the Arran Ferry Action Group.
I am not sure whether that is a point of order, Presiding Officer, but I am grateful for the chamber’s time.
Criminal Justice Committee
Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 30 March 2022
Katy Clark
Yes. The minister has been very clear on the issue of proxy purchase, and I can see the case that she is making there.
Minister, did you or other ministers look at how the current legislation is being used? Concerns have been raised with the committee that police and prosecutors are not putting in the resources to pursue cases for things that are currently illegal. We are being asked to consider what is quite a complicated system on a truncated timeline, given that the bill is emergency legislation. However, it is not clear that the current legislation is being properly enforced.
It is really a question for politicians and, therefore, for the minister. Have you really looked at reports on the level of offending and taken a view as to whether the amount of effort that should be being put into prosecuting people under the existing legislation is currently being put in? Perhaps the minister could give us a view on that.
Criminal Justice Committee
Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 30 March 2022
Katy Clark
My first question is not so much about prosecution, minister. Why do you think that emergency legislation is required, given that—apart from the provision on proxy purchase—most of the provisions will not be in place for November? A very complicated system is being proposed, and some witnesses have questioned whether the bill is actually necessary, given that there is already UK legislation that makes it illegal to supply fireworks to those under 18 and that prohibits the use of fireworks in a public place.
With regard to what you said to Russell Findlay on prosecutions, we would like more information on that subject, because we have not had any evidence on how the current legislation is being used. Why could the existing legislation not be amended or more action not be taken under its provisions? What consideration was given to taking such approaches instead of introducing primary or, indeed, emergency legislation?
Criminal Justice Committee
Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 30 March 2022
Katy Clark
Will you share something in writing with the committee or bring in your officials on why a ban would not be within the Parliament’s powers?
The bill process has been truncated. The committee has been asked to consider the bill in a way that means that it does not have as much time as it would have otherwise to examine it. The licensing part of the bill is complicated. Given that the committee is considering the bill and has the view that the licensing measures are complicated, and given that the bill will not be in force this year, why do you feel that it has to be on the statute book by November?
Criminal Justice Committee
Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 30 March 2022
Katy Clark
It is more that the minister’s answers raised issues that I want to ask about. She has partly answered my question in that she said that there was a constitutional problem with introducing the legislation that she might want to introduce. I think that she said that there are problems with banning fireworks. It would be good to get more information on that.
The complicated part of the bill is the licensing scheme. Are there any constitutional problems with the Parliament’s powers that affect that aspect of the bill?
