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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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Martin Whitfield
Yes, we can hear you now.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Martin Whitfield
Item 2 is the inquiry that we are doing on future parliamentary procedure and practice. For this evidence session, we are joined by Dr Ruth Fox, who is a director of the Hansard Society. Ruth Fox is responsible for the strategic direction and performance of the society and leads on its research programmes. We are also joined by Professor Meg Russell from University College London. Meg Russell is professor of British and comparative politics and is a director of the constitution unit. I hope that I will be able to welcome them—remotely—to the committee. I can see Dr Ruth Fox. Good morning, Dr Fox.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Martin Whitfield
I think that you ended your response on a very useful note, Dr Williamson. We should not artificially create barriers in the inevitable—or certainly enthusiastic—move to digital and end up excluding other groups in that way.
My final question was going to be about the advantages of virtual proceedings, but, after listening to the evidence from both our panels, I want to change that slightly and ask whether we should be afraid of virtual change or whether we should be brave enough to take risks. Indeed, that is partly why this Parliament was originally founded. By being this close to the people of Scotland and our constituents and by making them such an important part of it, we find ways of bringing them on. Should we be scared of this change or should we embrace it? We might make mistakes, but is the end goal more advantageous?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Martin Whitfield
It is interesting that you raise the question of interventions, given that much work has been done in the Scottish Parliament to allow the hybrid system to take them. I see Edward Mountain shaking his head at that, but hopefully we will be able to investigate that issue between now and the summer recess.
Perhaps I can pick up Dr Fox’s point and press Professor Russell on it. Where should responsibility for developing this communication rest? Should it rest, for example, with the political parties? Taking the example—I was going to call it a “simple example”—of a hybrid facility, should responsibility for deciding who can use it rest with the chamber, by which I mean the Presiding Officer, or should it be facilitated by the political parties? Is anybody disadvantaged or, indeed, advantaged by hybrid proceedings or the opportunity to make a hybrid contribution?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Martin Whitfield
Collette Stevenson has a follow-up question.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Martin Whitfield
We lost you for a short moment in the middle of your remarks, Dr Fox. I think that you are saying that it is very important that the data is collected and analysed but that we should choose what data points we want to reflect the information that we need. Would that be fair?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Martin Whitfield
Thank you, Dr Williamson. I will do the “sensitive convener” thing by reassuring you that we are taking substantial amounts of evidence both from other legislatures and from other people who have expertise in the Scottish Parliament. I think that the committee and every MSP recognise that the privilege of the Scottish Parliament is measured not by the fact that it is not Westminster but by the fact that it is the Parliament of the people of Scotland, which is why we are here.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Martin Whitfield
That is very helpful, Dr Williamson. I will pass over to Edward Mountain.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Martin Whitfield
Thank you, Dr Childs. Dr Williamson, can I add to Edward Mountain’s question about where the strains are, outwith the chamber? Is there also a need for MSPs to learn different skills in order to obtain information from the Government? Will technology make that easier?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Martin Whitfield
Thank you. I am slightly conscious of time. Would it be all right if I passed over to Edward Mountain, Mr Doris? Your question was pretty well covered.
