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 2785 contributions
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Finance and Public Administration Committee
Public Finances 2023-24 (Impact of Cost of Living and Public Service Reform)
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Douglas Lumsden
I will move on, because I know that we are short of time. The COSLA submission talks about the gap in funding that there will be in the next five years and about it being equivalent to having 20,000 fewer local government jobs. Do you think that that is the reality that we will face in five years’ time? Will there be 20,000 fewer local government jobs?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Public Finances 2023-24 (Impact of Cost of Living and Public Service Reform)
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Douglas Lumsden
Is local government still looking at having 20,000 fewer jobs in the next five years?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Public Finances 2023-24 (Impact of Cost of Living and Public Service Reform)
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Douglas Lumsden
To go back to the point about early intervention, how do we better get the message across to the Government that more money being spent on local government will give savings later? Is there any way at all of quantifying that?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Public Finances 2023-24 (Impact of Cost of Living and Public Service Reform)
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Douglas Lumsden
When we see a reconciliation of £817 million, we would think that something is going wrong somewhere.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Public Finances 2023-24 (Impact of Cost of Living and Public Service Reform)
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Douglas Lumsden
Thank you.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Public Finances 2023-24 (Impact of Cost of Living and Public Service Reform)
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Douglas Lumsden
Stephen Boyle, you said in your submission:
“structural reform in the public sector can take time to achieve and generate short-term costs.”
The Government is looking at the public sector pay bill, with a desire to keep it at a constant level. Do you see any urgency on the part of the Scottish Government to bring forward proposals? The longer the Government leaves it, the more cuts it will have to make, I imagine. Have there been discussions with the Government about when proposals will come forward?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Tributes to Her Late Majesty the Queen
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Douglas Lumsden
It is an honour to speak today. Last week, I listened to the First Minister describe the first time that she caught a glimpse of the Queen. I must admit that the earliest memory that I have of seeing the Queen was in very similar circumstances. I was just five years old when she was touring the country as part of her silver jubilee celebrations in 1977. We stayed across from Woodhill house in Aberdeen, and the Queen was set to visit and officially open the home of the then Grampian Regional Council. I was allowed to go and watch the Queen come out of the building and drive off in her big car.
I was young and I did not understand much at that age, but I understood that this was special, and that the Queen was special. As a five-year-old, I took days like that for granted, but thinking back, I was lucky. Most people would never see the Queen, but as a wee five-year-old, I had seen her, and would go on to see her on a number of other occasions—the opening of the new rooftop garden at Aberdeen royal infirmary and the opening ceremony of the sixth session of this Parliament, among others. Each time, I was a little bit older, but Her Majesty seemed to be a constant—always smiling, always speaking to people, always showing compassion, always waving and always serving. It is that public service that is so remarkable. She spent 70 years as Queen, but she gave a lifetime of service that we should all respect.
As we have heard, the Queen spent much time at Balmoral and it was clear that she had a deep admiration for Scotland. I was so proud to see the crowds give Her Majesty one last send-off as she was driven from Balmoral, through the north-east of Scotland and down to Edinburgh.
Like millions of others, I was glued to the television yesterday as the nation said one final farewell to Her Majesty. One part of the ceremony struck me like no other. It was at St George’s chapel, when the imperial crown, orb and sceptre were removed from the Queen for the last time in her 70-year reign. For me, that was special because my grandfather, Thomas Shaw, was on ceremonial duties when the Queen was crowned and given those items for the first time. We watched as they were taken from her one last time.
Queen Elizabeth’s reign was a link to many people whom we have loved and lost through the years. She was the Queen not only for the 67 million population that we have in the UK at present and the many millions more across the Commonwealth, but for the millions of loved ones who have come and gone before us. She was my Queen—a constant and a servant to our United Kingdom. That connection has now gone, but the memories will remain.
Long live the King.
11:41Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Public Sector Pay and Emergency Budget Review
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Douglas Lumsden
Can the Deputy First Minister confirm that no budget has been taken from this year’s allocation to the just transition fund for the north-east and Moray, and that every penny of the £20 million from this year’s budget will be allocated this year?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Douglas Lumsden
To ask the Scottish Government what further support it will provide to local authorities for the provision of accommodation for refugees in Scotland, in light of reports that suitable housing has been significantly reduced as a result of its supersponsor scheme. (S6O-01328)
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Douglas Lumsden
I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer, but it is clear that the houses are not there. Aberdeen City Council’s previous administration launched the city’s largest council house building programme in decades. Last month, with the Scottish National Party leader citing budget pressures, the new SNP-Lib Dem administration froze four big developments that would have delivered more than 500 new council homes in the city. Will the SNP-Green devolved Government get its act together, give Aberdeen a fair share of funding and allow Aberdeen to build the required new council homes that could be used to welcome people to the granite city?
