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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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
Of course.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
I imagine that provision might look different in different parts of the country, so it might be helpful for us to reflect on what good looks like.
10:00Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
Thank you very much, convener, and good morning to the panel.
I am particularly interested in information and advice that are provided to people who are looking to get back into education and training, particularly parents with a low income. I will start with the universities. The Open University has a dedicated helpline, and people can speak to advisers. Is that effective for people who are looking for information and advice? What more can be done in that space?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
The committee is always glad to provide opportunities for synergy
My next question is about partnership working. Jackie Galbraith mentioned the DWP, which I suppose includes Jobcentre Plus. Are advisers in that setting doing enough, and are they trained well to share opportunities and be supportive by taking people through the process and getting them the right information and advice?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
I am particularly interested in the relationships and how we support employers. In its submission, the IPPR talks about the Government using soft power to try to encourage employers to really play their part. I suppose that there will be good, tangible examples. I am keen to understand from David Stewart how Fedcap engages employers in that.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
I wonder whether I can ask Philip Whyte about the IPPR submission—
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
I will direct my question to Philip Whyte, who trailed it earlier. Philip, in your recommendations about soft power, I detected something about carrots and sticks and how the Government encourages employers. Have those recommendations been well received by the Government? Has any progress been made, or do we need to do more to encourage the following of those recommendations?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
That is interesting.
The committee has been particularly interested in childcare and in the use of the option for two-year-olds that has been rolled out to specific families as a means of getting people back into education and training. To what extent have you engaged in that space? There have been challenges in identifying families and getting the right holistic support for them. The family centres across the country work on the partnership hub model that we have just discussed. Have you had much engagement on the roll-out of 1,140 hours to two-year-olds—essentially, in getting to those parents?
I do not know who might want to come in on that. Does Sharon McIntyre have any views from the perspective of the more co-ordinating role of SDS?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
Obviously, there is a challenge in getting the information out there. My next question is to the other panel members. In your spheres of influence, what methods have you employed to tell people who have so much going on in their lives and many demands on their time that they can access the opportunities?
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?
