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 1492 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 30 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
The member will accept that there is an existing structure that covers the qualifications that the SCQF Partnership provides for. I do not disagree with what his amendment seeks to do, but, if we solidify that existing framework in primary legislation, is a challenge not that, as we develop needs and expectations and as new qualifications come along, it might be bound by a language that, as we have discovered with education in Scotland, very quickly becomes antiquated and, indeed, might prevent some of the development that the member and I are seeking to achieve for our young people in the form of qualifications and parity of qualifications across the board?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 30 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
Is it not the case that, however challenging the question, once it is answered, it is answered and people can move forward from that? The idea behind the amendments is that having a unique learner number and an agreement to share data will benefit all the other inquiry requirements that both bodies, whichever is chosen—I hope that one of them is—take forward.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 30 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
Am I right to infer that the cabinet secretary shares my concern about our being unsure about what the assessment landscape will look like in future, and that retaining the level of versatility allowed by the framework instead of defining all this to the nth degree in primary legislation would be beneficial and would meet what a number of members have indicated is their desired goal?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 30 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
My apologies if this is an ill-founded attempt at an intervention, but my concern with amendment 60 relates to aspects that both John Mason and Liz Smith have highlighted. With regard to the role of parliamentary committees, they are a structure of the Parliament, for the Parliament. Ross Greer has rightly pointed out that a number of external agencies respond to the Parliament—specifically, to various committees. Does he have a concern that, if his proposed route were to be adopted, every committee would be required to adopt it for everyone who answers to them? That will shift the fundamental reason for having committees in the Parliament, which is that they are, at a high level, advisers on the minutiae of what the chamber should decide.
I understand why Ross Greer lodged amendment 60, and I acknowledge the challenges that have existed with the non-response that this committee and its predecessors have had to their requests. However, we are potentially opening up Pandora’s box that will give us significant problems further down the road and cause us to fail on more levels.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 30 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
I am grateful. That proposal, with the relevant reassurance, would be an excellent way to move forward.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 30 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
The cabinet secretary will be aware of the challenge that those outside this place have faced in trying to seek enforcement of the UNCRC rights, particularly with regard to a challenging definition that seems to be doing the rounds, with regard to how legislation that is tainted—I think that is the phrase that was used—and clearly excludes the UNCRC has arisen. The purpose behind the amendments was in no way to add a higher level to the rights, but to formulate a reminder of their existence and, more importantly, to give a vehicle that might be required, which I think is lacking in the bill.
I realise that it is a complex matter that goes beyond this bill. If the Government is prepared and kind enough, we can engage on how we can ensure that the UNCRC rights are more explicitly supported for those who are outside this space, either through the bill or in some other way.
12:00Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 30 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
On the route that Ross Greer is articulating in his amendment, the challenge that someone who is undertaking qualifications might have in contributing to that is part of the wider discussion that can be had on membership and input.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Committee Effectiveness Inquiry
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
That is interesting, because my next question is on the committee’s statement of purpose, which exists at Westminster but is probably even more developed in the Senedd. What is that statement’s role, and is it Parliament wide? Should we perhaps consider committee-level statements of purpose in the Scottish Parliament?
I ask Diana Stirbu to answer first. I know that a lot of work is being done on that in the Senedd. Do you have a view? How do you develop such a statement?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Committee Effectiveness Inquiry
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
I think that Diana Stirbu wants to comment, too.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Committee Effectiveness Inquiry
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
I certainly do not think that that sounds creepy. I think that every committee member is glad to have that support.
I thank the witnesses for what has been a fascinating and, at times, in-depth discussion. If you have any subsequent thoughts, please reach out to the clerks as our inquiry goes on. Thank you for your contributions and evidence.
10:56 Meeting continued in private until 11:19.