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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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 11 December 2024
Michael Marra
My amendments 26, 27, 30 and 31 would require the Scottish Government to publish draft Gaelic language standards. The bill already requires the Government to carry out a consultation, but a requirement to consult is only worth while as long as there is something on which to consult.
Members of the committee will have gathered that there is significant public interest in the future of the Gaelic language from a range of stakeholders. I know that many have made passionate representations to the committee, in person and in writing, about how best to preserve and promote the Gaelic language. It is only right that the Government draws on the expertise of those stakeholders when publishing Gaelic language standards.
Amendment 32 holds the Scottish Government to a deadline for the publication of the draft Gaelic language standards, that being within one year of the day after royal assent.
There are two reasons for amendment 32. First, I think that it is fair to say that, in recent years, the Government has taken a very generous approach to its own deadlines, using nebulous targets such as “autumn”, which gives little certainty to Parliament or the wider public. The Government should not only set itself clear outcomes against which it can be measured but be transparent about when it expects to achieve those outcomes. A constant shifting of the goalposts erodes public trust.
Secondly, as the committee stated in its stage 1 report, the Gaelic language is in a “perilous state”. We do not have the luxury of time—perhaps you can detect a theme, convener, to many of my amendments. It is really important that the Government holds itself to a timeous deadline for the publication of Gaelic language standards.
I move amendment 26.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 11 December 2024
Michael Marra
My concern about changing the deadline to two years is that that pushes the matter into the next parliamentary session, and goodness only knows what that will look like. Things are in great flux. I hope that we do not just pass the bill but ensure that substantive action is taken within this parliamentary session. On that basis, I have concerns about moving to a two-year timeframe. In the spirit of negotiation, could we go a bit further? Could we find something at 18 months—essentially, prior to May 2026?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 11 December 2024
Michael Marra
I welcome that very much.
I was about to close on the fact that targets must drive actions; just having another plan that flows from them is insufficient. There has to be housing, better transport links and jobs in those communities. That is what will make a difference.
On the basis of the assurances that I have had, I do not intend to press amendment 8. I look forward to the discussions ahead of stage 3.
Amendment 8, by agreement, withdrawn.
Section 5—Gaelic language strategy
Amendments 9 to 12 moved—[Ross Greer]—and agreed to.
Amendment 13 not moved.
Amendment 14 moved—[Ross Greer]—and agreed to.
Amendment 15 not moved.
Amendments 16 to 18, 78 and 19 to 25 moved—[Ross Greer]—and agreed to.
Section 5, as amended, agreed to.
Section 6—Gaelic language standards
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 11 December 2024
Michael Marra
Do you recognise that the independence of that form of analysis is very important? I cite the landmark publication of “The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community”, which proved controversial in policy circles. Some of the well founded and deeply researched issues in that publication showed the depth of the decline. Although it might be a point of debate, independent research that holds the policy community and the Government to account for their actions is vitally important. In that regard, directly commissioned work from the Government might have its limitations.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Languages Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 11 December 2024
Michael Marra
I thank the cabinet secretary for her comments, and I think that there is some common ground here on the lack of frequency of reporting with regard to the status—or state—of the language, as far as the level is concerned. I sense that we are moving towards a commitment to doing something about reporting in terms of the areas of linguistic significance, and on that basis, and if there is a commitment to having further discussions ahead of stage 3 on how we ensure that this is in the bill, I am happy not to press amendment 47.
Amendment 47, by agreement, withdrawn.
Section 9—Gaelic language plans
Amendments 48 to 50 moved—[Ross Greer]—and agreed to.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26 and Economic and Fiscal Forecasts
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Michael Marra
What is the relationship between the £1.3 billion and the £400 million with regard to the IFS statement? You are saying that it indicated certain things.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26 and Economic and Fiscal Forecasts
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Michael Marra
What is the figure for that?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26 and Economic and Fiscal Forecasts
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Michael Marra
The justification for not producing a public sector pay policy last year or the year before was that the Government did not want to set a floor for negotiations. Part of the feedback in the committee’s discussions was that it might be sensible to set out some options for mitigations that could be used in the budget in the event that it exceeded the policy. In essence, the Government has given you a number that would set a floor, which you immediately think is not sufficient, but it has not done any of the other things that are needed to try to deal with that.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26 and Economic and Fiscal Forecasts
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Michael Marra
I will ask about the more general, longer-term position. What impact does the budget have on sustainability, on which you reported previously?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26 and Economic and Fiscal Forecasts
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Michael Marra
The final area is the sequencing of reports. We have previously talked about the differential between the OBR’s work and your work being a significant problem, but that was in relation to the huge delays—the snapshots were being taken at different times, so there was great variation. It seems that we are, on this occasion, in a slightly better position in that regard, but that you disagree with the OBR on some of the assumptions.
