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 1002 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
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?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 1 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
Thank you. I am just trying to understand. Amendment 1 removes OSCR’s unilateral power to make a decision to remove someone’s details, perhaps without their consent. Are there scenarios in which that power would be required? An individual might not see the risk to themselves, but there might be a wider risk meaning that action would need to be taken.
What discussion was there with OSCR on the provision? Was OSCR concerned that it would require that unilateral power?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 1 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
I come to the bill without having heard all the evidence that other committee members have heard. What was the rationale for enabling OSCR to remove someone’s details of its own accord? Would that have been done when there might have been a risk to the person who was registered? I just want to understand the Government’s rationale in lodging an amendment that would mean that OSCR would not have that power.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 1 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
I engaged in this discussion in the stage 1 debate, when I said that I shared several of the concerns that Jeremy Balfour and a number of churches have raised. The argument has been well rehearsed in the chamber and elsewhere. There is a challenge. Obviously, the Government has agreed to a year’s grace period for the implementation of the provisions of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016, but there is serious concern about the fact that, rather than a solution to the issue being put forward, we have simply had a pause.
There is a balance to be struck. Part of that balance is about ensuring that we have transparency with regard to who has a controlled interest in land and property. If we can ensure that information on trustees is transparently available via the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator process, and thereby remove the burden from churches, it might be worth considering Jeremy Balfour’s amendment in more detail. The Church of Scotland passed that deliverance at its general assembly just last week. We need to take cognisance of that.
09:15I am keen to understand the definition of “religious charity” as outlined in Mr Balfour’s amendment. Is there a legal definition of a religious charity? I am playing devil’s advocate—pardon the pun—but I just want to understand whether, for example, someone could set up a religious charity to try to mask the fact that they own land. I am not saying that that would happen; I am just trying to understand whether the term “religious charity” relates to a church or religious group or whether the definition is wider.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 1 June 2023
Paul O'Kane
Thank you.
