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 1388 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Decision Time
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Tess White
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app would not work. I would have voted no.
Meeting of the Parliament
Decision Time
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Tess White
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app would not work. I would have voted yes.
Meeting of the Parliament
Decision Time
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Tess White
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app did not work. I would have voted no.
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 28 September 2023
Tess White
There have been five outbreaks of avian flu in Aberdeenshire since July and, earlier this month, 1,500 birds were killed near Peterhead. It is no wonder that NFU Scotland has described the situation as very worrying and said that it remains a serious concern. Will the minister reassure poultry farmers that the Scottish Government will consider all safeguards against avian flu ahead of the festive period, including housing orders for commercial stocks?
Meeting of the Parliament
Scotland’s Future Energy System
Meeting date: 28 September 2023
Tess White
The minister is aware that Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks intends to construct a substation in the Mearns and to install new overhead lines. There are huge implications for farming, tourism, property and wildlife habitats in the area. Does the minister agree that new energy infrastructure projects must always be completed with the consent of residents? Will the minister confirm that no attempt will be made to override the concerns of local communities in Scotland following the Scottish National Party’s failed attempt to amend the UK Government’s Energy Bill?
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 28 September 2023
Tess White
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking ahead of the festive period to support poultry farms, in light of the potential threat of avian flu. (S6O-02576)
Meeting of the Parliament
Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Bill: Stage 3
Meeting date: 27 September 2023
Tess White
I rise to support Jackie Baillie’s amendments in group 1. The Queen Elizabeth university hospital scandal has haunted families for years—families who are desperately seeking answers from a health board that has pulled down the shutters and said, “Nothing to see here.” We saw the same thing happen in NHS Tayside in the Sam Eljamel case. His medical negligence has had devastating consequences for his patients. Patients and their families should not have to go up against a large public body in order to find out the truth. That is in no way a fair fight.
In 2019, the Scottish Government announced the Scottish hospitals inquiry to look into the QEUH campus and, earlier this month, it announced that there would be a public inquiry into Dr Eljamel. Those inquiries are welcome, but they can take years and leave families in limbo. Against that background, it makes sense for the patient safety commissioner to advocate for those who have been affected by a major incident in a healthcare setting, where they believe that it is appropriate to do so. Jackie Baillie’s amendments are, however, a significant expansion of the patient safety commissioner’s remit, with implications for resourcing. If the amendments are successful—and I hope that they will be, after the Scottish National Party and Greens rejected them at stage 2—the commissioner will need to be able to deliver on them. I hope that the minister and Jackie Baillie will be able to address that point.
Meeting of the Parliament
Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Bill: Stage 3
Meeting date: 27 September 2023
Tess White
Amendment 11 requires that the “statement of principles” must consider ways of engaging with NHS staff to seek
“their views on patient safety concerns”.
A similar amendment that, as the minister will remember, I lodged at stage 2 sought to place a duty on the commissioner to “seek the views” of NHS staff in relation to patient safety. In her response at the time, the minister raised concerns that the commissioner is
“already empowered to do so”—[Official Report, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, 13 June 2023; c 16.]
and that such an approach could detract from “patients’ voices”. As such, I have softened the approach of the amendment at stage 3 to focus it on how the commissioner can engage with NHS staff, instead of creating a requirement for them to do so.
I am revisiting the amendment, because, in the period between stages 2 and 3, the trial of former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby reached its horrifying conclusion. That deeply distressing case has shocked the public and has shaken the foundations of the healthcare system. Lessons can and must be learned by healthcare providers, especially given that other NHS staff raised the alarm but were overruled by their managers. I know that recourse exists for NHS staff to raise red flags about safety, but, as the Royal College of Nursing has argued, staff do not always feel that their concerns are heard or addressed, as in Lucy Letby’s case.
The minister suggested that the commissioner’s hearing from NHS staff could cut across patients’ voices, but I would counter that, in many cases, such processes could be concurrent and complementary. It would, of course, be at the commissioner’s discretion how to amplify the voice of patients while engaging with NHS staff, but the amendment is designed to facilitate that process.
I move amendment 11.
Meeting of the Parliament
Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Bill: Stage 3
Meeting date: 27 September 2023
Tess White
I will press the amendment. I am deeply disappointed that the minister has not considered the case of Lucy Letby or the recommendations by the RCN.
Meeting of the Parliament
Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Bill: Stage 3
Meeting date: 27 September 2023
Tess White
I will press amendment 12. I am deeply disappointed that the minister has not heard what I have said. The parliamentary committees have huge resources at their disposal for research and holding inquiries. I think that the minister’s decision is a big mistake, and I hope that, if the amendment is rejected, the commissioner, when he or she is in post, will use that facility to his or her advantage for patient safety. I press amendment 12.
