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 1714 contributions
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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Cross-Party Groups
Meeting date: 8 September 2022
Michael Marra
On your first question, the answer is certainly yes. In a year, the involvement of other groups would be a signal of success and demand in the area. In order to understand what the broader demand is, I would be keen to set the group up and see whether there is the real demand that I believe there to be—and that other members have expressed to me that they, too, see—for a particular forum on these issues. Testing that demand through the establishment of the group would be the right thing.
I understand your point about the existence of other meetings and forums. However, within parts of the communities that we all represent, there is a frustration that parental voices are perhaps not given a high enough profile in the general discussion. As a member of the Education, Children and Young People Committee—as you are, Mr Doris—I think that we could perhaps reflect more broadly on that.
You cited a specific example of a recent meeting. I am not entirely clear about what was done. I could ask Connect whether it was aware of, and engaged in, that meeting. However, as I have said, it is not just about having a forum for Connect. The proposed group would be a specific forum for issues on long-term policy trends and the engagement of families in education policy and the education of their young people. Education is a broad issue that touches on many areas of policy, and there will clearly be different forums for it. Giving this topic specific focus would be the right thing to do.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Cross-Party Groups
Meeting date: 8 September 2022
Michael Marra
It is fair to say that there is definitely more work to do in that regard. In conversations that I have had with colleagues, they have expressed concerns similar to those that Mr Mountain expressed. They have said, “It’s a really important topic. I am on so many CPGs already, but I’d be keen to attend and see how it works.” Female colleagues I have spoken to are certainly very much of that view, but they have perhaps been less inclined to put their names down in the first instance, having signed up to many CPGs already. The secretariat is female led, which will certainly provide an initial balance to the leadership of the group, but I appreciate that there is more work to do.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Michael Marra
But—
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Michael Marra
You think that colleges and universities should make up the gap.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Michael Marra
With respect, the feedback that I have had shows that gaps definitely exist, and, as we have said, your methodology recognises that gaps exist, but I am not sure that I am hearing where you think those gaps should be made up. For example, should the college or the university make up for the lost learning of someone who has left school and gone somewhere else?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Michael Marra
The witnesses might have picked up on the session that we had with Education Scotland prior to the summer recess, in which senior officials told the committee that the organisation was not being scrapped. I think that it is fair to say that the Scottish Government has been very clear on that issue and on the SQA’s status. What will be different about Scotland’s qualifications agency after the process is completed?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Michael Marra
On that point, Ken Muir’s report was quite clear in recommending the separation of awarding functions from accreditation and regulation. Do you think that separation, which is a clear recommendation, will be taken forward?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Michael Marra
There are currently four non-executive directors in addition to the board members, which makes a total of 11, the majority of whom—six—are employees of the SQA.
I suppose that where I am going with this is that members of the committee and external organisations have expressed concern that—just as happened with Education Scotland—we are looking at a rebrand rather than at a replacement or a substantive reform.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Michael Marra
But—if I may, please—in contrast with much of your submission to the committee and what we have heard, the Government has concluded that the organisation has failed in recent years, otherwise it would not be scrapping it.
The question now is what replaces the organisation. It strikes me that, if the system is driven by the management of the existing organisation—we are being told by some that their organisations are not even being scrapped—can we really have faith that this reform process is based on the needs of the future? Should external voices not be being heard? Should users not be represented in the process? Should such people not make the decisions, rather than the six SQA managers—including you, Mr Baxter—who are listed on my piece of paper?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Michael Marra
The committee would recognise the challenge of undertaking both functions at the same time. My answer to that is to ask why things are taking quite so long, with a transition process taking years and a national conversation after the conclusion of a qualifications review. That exacerbates the problem. The—
