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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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Early Learning and Childcare: 1,140 Hours
Meeting date: 25 May 2022
Michael Marra
Yes. Proceed, and we will see how we go.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Early Learning and Childcare: 1,140 Hours
Meeting date: 25 May 2022
Michael Marra
No, I am afraid we cannot hear him.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 May 2022
Michael Marra
I appreciate that. I also recognise that that might be challenging in and of itself. My question was not about whether it would be helpful—
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Early Learning and Childcare: 1,140 Hours
Meeting date: 25 May 2022
Michael Marra
I will keep this reasonably brief. In their observations on the work that has been done under the policy in the past couple of years, most people have touched on the issue that I will raise. I have heard reports—actually, it goes beyond reports—of nursery closures in my constituency. I am being told that that is because of a change in behaviour by parents, who are perhaps accessing childcare in different ways and making different decisions because their working patterns have changed.
I know that work was undertaken more than a year ago on the sector’s financial health. Does that work need to be refreshed? Do you have concerns about the sector’s health across Scotland? I want to be reasonably specific that I am talking about coming out of the other side of the pandemic, because we have explored in depth the issues that relate to the unexpected consequences and other effects of the policy. What is the sector’s general health?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Early Learning and Childcare: 1,140 Hours
Meeting date: 25 May 2022
Michael Marra
The evidence that we have heard so far has prompted some questions in my mind. It is clear that there is broad support across the Parliament for increasing the options, particularly for people from more economically deprived backgrounds. That is a big positive. However, from the outside, I have found it quite difficult to understand whether the programme and big investment of taxpayers’ money is about childcare or education. The Scottish Government has said that the benefits are increasing family resilience, closing the poverty-related attainment gap and supporting parents into work. Some people would say that some of those things might be in conflict, although I do not necessarily agree. Is it childcare or is it education?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Attainment Challenge Inquiry
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Michael Marra
I already have done.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Attainment Challenge Inquiry
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Michael Marra
It is absolutely not what I am suggesting. I have made that abundantly clear.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Attainment Challenge Inquiry
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Michael Marra
I find that a little bit contradictory. Bear with me, because this is a matter of concern for people such as headteachers, who are charged with implementing the policy on the ground. Are you now saying that, if there are cuts to Scottish attainment challenge funding in their area, they can use pupil equity funding to pay for those services instead?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Attainment Challenge Inquiry
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Michael Marra
Are you referring to one of the 32 directors of education in Scotland?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Attainment Challenge Inquiry
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Michael Marra
I do not think that that is an answer to my question. I am trying to get clarity. You are saying that, in Dundee, it is possible to spend pupil equity funding to backfill the cuts that you have made.
