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 1897 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Paul O'Kane
Fiona, do you have a view? I imagine that yours may be similar.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Paul O'Kane
To ask the Deputy First Minister whether the Scottish Government will consider writing off school meal debts, in light of reports of local authorities instructing sheriff officers to pursue families for unpaid school meal debts. (S6F-02377)
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Paul O'Kane
Organisations such as Aberlour children’s charity speak of a cycle of problem debt owed to public bodies that is trapping families in poverty. Not only are families experiencing the stress of being trapped in that cycle, but we have now learned that councils such as Renfrewshire in my region are sending debt collectors to families’ doors, exacerbating unimaginable pressure, when those families are just trying to get by in a cost of living crisis.
Despite what the Deputy First Minister says about the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities guidance on managing school debt, families are now in a postcode lottery, because some councils are writing the debt off and others are resorting to debt collectors. Fifty anti-poverty organisations and trade unions wrote to the Deputy First Minister’s predecessor to call for action in the most recent budget. Scottish Labour outlined plans to write off school debt in our call for an emergency cost of living act in the summer of 2022. The former First Minister said that she was “sympathetic” to calls to write the debts off and asked officials to look at the issue.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Paul O'Kane
Sympathy, warm words and another year of inaction from the Government—
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Paul O'Kane
When will he take urgent action and provide resource in order to allow all councils to write off those debts and stop the sheriff officers?
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Paul O'Kane
All the while, the debt collectors are banging on the door. If reducing poverty is the defining mission of Humza Yousaf’s Government—
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Paul O'Kane
It feels a little like groundhog day each time we get an answer to this question. It is a year now since East Renfrewshire Council bid for two projects for replacements for Carolside primary school and Cross Arthurlie primary school. The schools are badly needed for the communities that they serve.
Does the cabinet secretary accept that issues with uncertainty around financing are causing real concern in local authorities, which are trying to undertake long-term capital and revenue planning? I appreciate that Highland colleagues will raise issues specific to their communities, but does she fear, as communities do, that councils might have to shelve other projects due to the uncertainty from the Government?
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Paul O'Kane
To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish updated details of its learning estate investment programme. (S6O-02537)
Meeting of the Parliament
Decision Time
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Paul O'Kane
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app would not connect. I would have abstained.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 14 September 2023
Paul O'Kane
That was a useful answer in relation to the Government, but the nature of the work in this area is such that it involves other agencies. Local government is a strong partner in that work, but it faces huge challenges, not least on resource. Can the cabinet secretary say something about the Government’s work with local government on that agenda?
