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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 1537 contributions
|
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Katy Clark
In November 2022, I asked whether any work was going on in the Scottish Government to look at a land value tax, and I was told that there was not. Since then, has any work been carried out to consider the feasibility of any version of a land value tax or, indeed, any form of land-based taxation to raise additional revenue, given that those forms of taxation are fully devolved?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Katy Clark
Can you say any more about how that information will be used and how the person will be informed? What will be the processes in that respect? Will they be similar to what you have just outlined?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Katy Clark
Indeed. I lodged a final bill proposal this morning, but that is for a different discussion.
The 2002 freedom of information legislation enables designation of more bodies. Do you envisage there being provision to extend the range of bodies that are covered, if experience requires it?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Katy Clark
It is proposed that the council be given powers to request information from a very wide range of organisations. Can you justify that? Why are such extensive information-seeking powers proposed?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Katy Clark
The regulations apply to
“a person with whom they”—
that is, Social Security Scotland—
“come into contact”.
Who, other than clients, would the organisation come into contact with? How would those people be informed about the use of their information?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Katy Clark
Thank you.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Katy Clark
To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will outline any plans it has for freedom of information reform in the current parliamentary session. (S6F-02615)
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Katy Clark
This morning, I lodged my final proposal for a member’s bill to reform the freedom of information legislation and extend its coverage to private companies and others who deliver public services, and not just those in the care sector. The Scottish Information Commissioner, previous Scottish Information Commissioners and this Parliament’s Public Audit Committee have all called for such legislative reform. Will the First Minister look at the issue again? Does he agree that public information rights should follow the public pound?
Criminal Justice Committee
Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Katy Clark
I want to go back to the issue of evidence and data. Last week, we considered the Scottish Government’s proposal that a majority in a jury should be changed to eight out of 12, but we also considered the possibility of it being 10 out of 12.
Sandy Brindley, I appreciate that we have no hard data and that there is no concrete evidence on this, but what are your impressions—anecdotally, from the women with whom Rape Crisis Scotland works—on the outcomes from juries? How often is the decision, either to convict or to acquit, unanimous, and how often is the jury split? What kind of splits are you told about? I appreciate that you might not have formally surveyed the women with whom Rape Crisis Scotland works, but what is your impression? I feel that we are working in the dark, so even anecdotal information is of interest.
Criminal Justice Committee
Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Katy Clark
Thank you. That is helpful.
