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 994 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Paul O'Kane
I will expand on the point about the practicalities of the bill. It is a framework bill that has some very clear things to say, and it will have a very clear effect on local government, but the written submissions say that there is also concern about what is not said about secondary legislation. In its submission, Inverclyde Council says:
“Leaving so much to secondary legislation will mean there will be no effective consultation, no opportunities for expert advice and experience to influence the details and a lack of transparency and democratic accountability.”
To be fair to the Government, I think that it would contend that there will be a co-designed process, but is it your view that that is the wrong way round and that there should have been a co-designed process first, followed by the bill?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Paul O'Kane
Good morning, panel. I will begin with some questions on what is felt to be the lack of detail, which is being left to secondary legislation, and the lack of local accountability, on which many of you share comments in your submissions.
Starting with COSLA’s approach and its submission, I think that it is fair to say that it is very concerning to read local government’s view on what the bill will do to the provision of services by local government. At COSLA, unanimous cross-party concerns have been raised about the bill, and leaders have unanimously agreed that position. I was a councillor for 10 years and I do not recall such unanimity at COSLA, particularly through its leaders. Councillor Kelly, will you explain how that position was reached and what the concerns are?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 25 October 2022
Paul O'Kane
I want to ask about social work. I imagine that it is challenging to make a comparison, because the scope of the bill goes beyond the practical delivery of social care. Northern Ireland is perhaps a good example to look at, because social work there is delivered slightly differently via more of a health board model. Have you found any international examples of elements of social work, as a profession, being put into a national social care structure?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 25 October 2022
Paul O'Kane
Do those arrangements involve criminal justice, children and young people’s services or learning disability services, for example, as well as just older people’s services?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 25 October 2022
Paul O'Kane
We have begun to touch on the issue of what the bill will actually achieve. I would like to reflect on some of the commentary that there has been since the bill’s publication. The Centre for Care said that there must be greater clarity on how the reforms will achieve the intended goals. It asked how we will test the bill against the theory of change and how we will establish whether it has done what we want it to do. There has been commentary on whether the bill will fully deliver the recommendations of the Feeley review, and there has been commentary from trade unions on whether it will do anything to tackle the issues around pay and terms and conditions. Unison has gone as far as to say that the bill should be paused.
In that context, I am keen to get a sense of how the bill can achieve the aims that have been set out. Perhaps we could start with Nick Kempe.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 25 October 2022
Paul O'Kane
That leads me neatly on to my next question. The sense that I am getting from those contributions is that this has to be about cultures, not structures, and that we have to avoid that top-down approach. Indeed, Reform Scotland said in response to the call for views that there has not been an
“adequate explanation about why simply removing local government”,
for example, from social care would lead to implementation or to innovation in delivery. Do the panellists agree that we need to look at that in a more rounded fashion?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Petitions
Meeting date: 25 October 2022
Paul O'Kane
Forgive me—we have not done this before as a committee. As there is obviously an issue relating to local government and the structure of local government, is that an issue for the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee? With the best will in the world, we are not going to be able to make a recommendation on the restructuring of local government in Scotland.
That is just a thought, and I am not sure how the ping-pong between committees works.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 25 October 2022
Paul O'Kane
I wonder whether Sir Harry wants to come in, particularly in relation to testing change. Obviously, he has experience of testing change and seeing what works.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Petitions
Meeting date: 25 October 2022
Paul O'Kane
Pardon that expression.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Health and Social Care Integration
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Paul O'Kane
Sure. Putting the pandemic to one side, do you get the sense that integration is well embedded, or is it still very much a work in progress in terms of the wider picture?
