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 1895 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
Witnesses are very helpfully leading my questions into the next area that I had planned to go to, which is always good. Rami Okasha, on the point about families who require additional support and have different needs, are councils using flexibility to provide childcare, particularly for two-year-olds, or could far more be done now, within discretionary powers and by looking more widely at eligibility, to address those circumstances?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
Convener, are you happy for Susan McGhee to come in before I ask my final question?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
We have spoken about two-year-olds, but I am keen to understand a bit more about school-age children who do not currently have clear eligibility in that space. Do you have a view on what kind of eligibility for school-age children would be the most helpful in trying to ensure that we support people into work and keep people in work? The Government is considering all of that.
I do not know whether anyone wants to add anything—I appreciate that it is a big question.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
Yes.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
I am particularly interested in eligibility and how we continue to expand provision, particularly for different age ranges. I will start with the work that has been done for two-year-olds. Audit Scotland’s recent report highlighted that progress is being made but that work still has further to go. I want to get a sense from the witnesses of whether we are getting it right in identifying eligible two-year-olds. Do councils need to use more of their discretionary powers to get to more families? What is your sense of what is currently happening?
Susan McGhee, would you like to start?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
The committee received a submission from Early Years Scotland that focused on the point that the thresholds for access to that childcare are quite limiting. I think that 25 per cent of two-year-olds are eligible and many families are missing out. My question is whether those thresholds are right or whether we need to look at them and expand access. Susan McGhee, do you want to comment on that?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
I will follow up on that point. A lot of our discussion has been about universal provision for three and four-year-olds. Are there significant challenges to universal provision for two-year-olds? What work can you see being done that might move us towards that position?
Meeting of the Parliament
Decision Time
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I was unable to connect. I would have voted yes.
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 7 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting local theatres. (S6O-02328)
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 7 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
This year, the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock celebrates its 10th birthday, which is a significant achievement that reflects its status as a much loved cultural institution. It is a continuation of the arts guild in Greenock, which was founded in 1946, and is much loved by people in Inverclyde and across my West Scotland region. Unfortunately, the centre is often seen as the exception rather than the rule, with too many community theatres struggling for survival due to inadequate financial support. The former finance secretary’s decision to reverse a proposed £6.6 million cut to the culture sector in February was a welcome step, but Creative Scotland should not have been threatened with such a significant financial cut in the first instance. Does the minister agree that cultural institutions such as the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock are invaluable local assets? Will she agree to meet with me to discuss funding for various theatres in West Scotland that are in real peril?
