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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 2620 contributions
|
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Douglas Lumsden
I know that the bill process is at an early stage but, given that the NHS would be a key partner in delivering a national care service, surely there have been some discussions to enable the Government to get to the point that it is at now. Has that not been the case?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Douglas Lumsden
From the written submissions and what you have said, there seem to be a number of risks. We have heard about transition costs, the number of boards and a doubling of the running costs, as well as uncertainty on VAT, pensions, staff numbers, scope, impact on the third sector, IT systems, records and training. We have already covered a huge number of unknowns. How do we keep track of them and know what the costs will be to mitigate some of those risks? Can you think of any other unknowns that should be added to my list?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Douglas Lumsden
So there is not yet one place where all the risks have been written down so that we can all see them.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Douglas Lumsden
You do not have a lot of staff sitting around waiting for the co-design and engagement process to happen. What will have to be cut for that process to take place?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Douglas Lumsden
Do you expect additional budget to come your way so that you can take part in the co-design and engagement process?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Douglas Lumsden
I imagine that the piece of work that is coming the NHS’s way will not be insignificant.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Douglas Lumsden
I have a question for Mark Taylor. Even at this early stage, do you feel that all the risks have been accurately identified and quantified? I am thinking of things such as VAT, over which we still have large question marks. Do you feel that enough work has been done on that, so that we can understand its impact?
Meeting of the Parliament
Low Income and Debt (Report)
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Douglas Lumsden
The member misses the point completely. What we want is a society in which people do not rely on welfare but have the jobs and opportunities to progress. The best way to tackle poverty is by providing good education, getting people into well-paid employment and growing our economy. We want the Scottish Government to commit to develop schemes that provide employment for people. We want it to tackle the root cause of poverty and to focus on growing the economy, to provide the opportunity that our people deserve.
I again thank all the organisations that gave the committee such moving evidence about the people with whom they work and the stories that those people told. We face a difficult time. Many households are fearful of the future and are wondering how they will pay their bills and meet their financial commitments.
The Government should be doing all that it can to address those needs, but instead we get empty promises and diversion politics. The Government blames someone else while saying that there is nothing that it can do.
We believe that there is much more that the Scottish Government can do, including delivering on some of its promises of the past. We want to see a fair funding settlement for local authorities, so that they can deliver the help and services that are required in our communities. We want to see free school meals delivered, not only promised; debt services funded properly; economic growth and employment at the heart of Government policy—
Meeting of the Parliament
Low Income and Debt (Report)
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Douglas Lumsden
Will the member take an intervention?
Meeting of the Parliament
Low Income and Debt (Report)
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Douglas Lumsden
—and an increased focus from the Government on the day job. The people of Scotland deserve a Government that thinks about their needs rather than stokes division and grievance.
16:25