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 1603 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Emma Caldwell Case
Meeting date: 7 March 2024
Katy Clark
The chief constable has said that the police have reflected and learned from the initial investigation and subsequent reinvestigation but, as the cabinet secretary has said, there are still huge concerns about how women are treated by the justice system. The family have been waiting for 19 years. I heard what the cabinet secretary said regarding their role in setting the terms of reference. What discussions will the cabinet secretary have with the family about the remit of the inquiry and whether the investigation would be dealt with in the same way if it happened now?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 6 March 2024
Katy Clark
I have a question. I would not want in any way to hold up the passage of SSI 2024/26, which removes historical discrimination, but some outstanding issues are not covered in the SSI and I wonder whether we could get further information from the Scottish Government.
A significant part of the Fire Brigades Union response to the UK-wide consultation relates to the issue of aggregation, which is not covered in the regulations. Aggregation only applies to some members who joined the Fire and Rescue Service before April 2006, but it is an outstanding issue that I am sure—or I would hope—that we would all want to be addressed. It would be useful to get an understanding of the Scottish Government’s position on that. I appreciate that there are on-going UK-wide discussions, but it would be useful to know whether the Scottish Government considered going further, or what representations it is making in relation to those issues.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Katy Clark
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what steps it is taking to resolve industrial action in the further education sector. (S6T-01838)
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Katy Clark
Does the minister believe that it is acceptable that further education workers in Scotland are being asked to take, as their first pay rise for three years, a below-inflation pay rise, or face compulsory redundancy?
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Katy Clark
I would be grateful if the minister could answer the question as to whether the threat of compulsory redundancy is acceptable. Many colleges still do not recognise trade unions and, as she indicated, some are deducting 100 per cent pay for action short of a strike being taken. Will she use this opportunity to remind colleges of their responsibility under the fair work convention that she has spoken about?
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 29 February 2024
Katy Clark
The cabinet secretary knows that, on Arran and in Ardrossan, there is a great deal of concern about whether Ardrossan to Brodick will be the long-term route. Will she reassure people there that it will be, given that it is the quickest and most convenient route, and given the ferry port’s socioeconomic importance to Ardrossan?
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 29 February 2024
Katy Clark
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will make a long-term commitment to retain the Ardrossan to Brodick ferry service. (S6O-03148)
Meeting of the Parliament
Prison Population
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Katy Clark
Although considerable investment was made in the new women’s custody units, we were advised last year that, for most of the time, occupancy rates were less than 50 per cent, with the highest occupancy rate being 52 per cent. Will the cabinet secretary reassure the Parliament that the assessment criteria have been reviewed and that those excellent facilities are now being fully utilised?
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Katy Clark
The minister will be aware of the appalling implications for Arran resulting from the continuing failure to provide a regular Brodick-Ardrossan service. The MV Caledonian Isles has been out of service since early January and—as has been said—the MV Alfred can no longer be used on the route, so we are reliant on the 40-year-old MV Isle of Arran.
Does the minister accept that that is an inevitable problem of having an ageing fleet as a result of past failure to invest? Indeed, the failure to make progress at Ardrossan harbour is coming home to roost. We need much more robust resilience strategies, and the Scottish Government needs to be centrally involved in that provision.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Katy Clark
I am very much aware of the UK’s responsibilities and of its failings. We spent the whole of Tuesday afternoon discussing a hypothetical social security system in an independent Scotland. Surely the payments that we are discussing are within your power. It might be that there is not the money to do this, but I am asking whether you have done any costings and whether you could look into the matter, given that we are dealing with real costs to people. Has any work been done on that, and could that be shared?
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