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 2800 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
“NHS in Scotland 2021”
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Sue Webber
We have spoken about how the shift to the preventative agenda can be made. How can we monitor progress in putting the preventative agenda for healthcare into place, rolling it out and delivering it? Is there data to support the monitoring of progress when it comes down to the outcomes? It is a challenge that we hear a lot about, but how do we actually monitor progress?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
“NHS in Scotland 2021”
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Sue Webber
My second question goes back to drawing parallels with the clinical prioritisation framework, which I am certainly aware of. The Scottish Government is piloting prehabilitation for cancer patients, but what value do you attach to rolling out the scheme more broadly across the NHS, particularly for those who are in the various categories in the prioritisation framework, to make sure that people are in good shape, rather than in worse shape, when they eventually reach the point at which they will have treatment?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Health and Care Bill
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Sue Webber
In Scotland, we now have, for want of a better phrase, an opt-out approach to organ donation, but what else is the Scottish Government doing to increase the number of organ donors in Scotland? Would that not help to limit the risk of commercial dealings around organ transplants?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Committee Substitutes
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Sue Webber
Yes, thank you. It is uncanny timing that I am here as a substitute.
I reiterate what Mr Doris said; I think that having continuity and consistency of substitutes is key. Having such consistency on the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee is particularly relevant. Although giving some committees more flexibility than others might have to be scoped out, I have certainly found it helpful to have consistency, and I hope that the committee has also found it helpful to have a consistent substitute here.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Committee Substitutes
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Sue Webber
When the clerks report back to us, would it be possible for them to tell us the reasons why substitutions took place? Even if we knew whether the reasons were health, Covid or constituency related, that would allow us to get a sense of where the challenges lie. I understand that that might not be possible, for personal reasons.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Alternative Pathways to Primary Care
Meeting date: 29 March 2022
Sue Webber
I want to follow up Evelyn Tweed’s point about the role of the receptionist. Some of the papers talk about gatekeepers, but they are also called signposts or gateways. I realise that that is all about positive versus negative language, but the point is that the people accessing these MDTs still have to contact a particular individual, and that is often still the bottleneck that causes the frustration. How might we overcome that?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Alternative Pathways to Primary Care
Meeting date: 29 March 2022
Sue Webber
I have one more question. What assessment have you and your team made of provision of GP out-of-hours services during the pandemic?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Alternative Pathways to Primary Care
Meeting date: 29 March 2022
Sue Webber
Hello, cabinet secretary, and thank you for coming this morning.
As you know, recruitment and retention in general practice continues to be a critical issue as we recover from the pandemic, but even before Covid, the Audit Scotland reports were showing that the Scottish Government’s plan to increase the GP workforce by 800 by 2027 is on course to be all but wiped out by the number of doctors who are expected to retire or change their working patterns. What needs to happen to improve retention among general practitioners?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Alternative Pathways to Primary Care
Meeting date: 29 March 2022
Sue Webber
We know that screening saves lives and that early detection saves lives. A lady who is over 70 has contacted me, and she is desperate to get a breast screening. Due to some medication that she is on, there is a significant increase in the risk of her getting breast cancer, yet she has been denied that. What can we do? She should be able to access treatment and screening equally with anyone else, specifically given the risk factor that has clearly been identified. How can we help this lady in particular?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Alternative Pathways to Primary Care
Meeting date: 29 March 2022
Sue Webber
I understand what you are saying.
