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 892 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Foysol Choudhury
Can we also write to the City of Edinburgh Council to see whether there is any concern about the issues that the petitioners have raised?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Foysol Choudhury
To establish whether there are any concerns for the council about the issue that the petitioner is raising. If we close the petition, that is the end of it, but if there are some concerns that are—
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Foysol Choudhury
Good morning. The Scottish Government proposes to make changes to the national parks legislation in a bill that is due to be introduced later this parliamentary year. Does the fact that that process is running alongside your investigation create any challenges—for example, in enabling you to tell the community what a Galloway national park might look like?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Foysol Choudhury
The committee has heard some views that national parks lack the power to do things differently and that the model should be strengthened before new designations are made. What are your views on that? Will the legislative proposals make a significant difference to how national parks operate?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Foysol Choudhury
I do not think that we have asked the current First Minister about the petition, so we should get him involved. We could also write to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to see whether we can continue to keep the petition open.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Foysol Choudhury
I am happy with that.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Foysol Choudhury
Are you worried that something might come as a surprise?
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Foysol Choudhury
The new UK Government reinstated funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in July. Now the Israeli Parliament has voted to ban it from operating within Israel. That decision means less life-saving aid getting into Palestine.
When the cabinet secretary met the deputy ambassador of Israel, did he raise the importance of UNRWA? Will he join me in condemning the Israeli Parliament’s decision?
Meeting of the Parliament
Antisocial Behaviour and Antisocial Driving
Meeting date: 12 November 2024
Foysol Choudhury
I congratulate Alex Cole-Hamilton on securing a debate on this important subject. It is saddening that there will be hardly a community in Scotland that will not be experiencing the issue that we are discussing today. The Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act 2004 was passed 20 years ago, but the yearly disorder on bonfire night in Edinburgh shows that such behaviour is still a problem that affects people’s lives.
Sometimes, antisocial behaviour is dismissed as a normal part of life, but we must recognise that persistent unacceptable behaviour has terrible effects for those who fall victim to it. I note the findings of the “Still living a nightmare” report, which includes troubling testimony from those falling victim to persistent antisocial behaviour. I quote:
“every day I’m crying, it makes me anxious... and it actually makes me physically sick”.
That sort of thing is not minor and cannot be ignored.
I have heard from constituents, many from ethnic minorities, stories of feeling victimised and targeted by antisocial behaviour. Some were told that their best course of action was just to move house. That is not good enough. People have the right to feel welcome in their communities and safe in their homes.
That extends to businesses, too. Last week, I spoke to the Scottish Grocers Federation. Its crime report found that violence, shoplifting and threats were commonplace, but 93 per cent of the retailers stated that police responses to shoplifting incidents were unsatisfactory and 76 per cent said that they were unlikely to report incidents to the police. The public must have confidence that they will be listened to if they report antisocial behaviour.
Scotland has, rightly, taken a preventive rather than a punitive approach to tackling antisocial behaviour. We know that such behaviour is more common in areas of multiple deprivation and that those who engage in it are often dealing with other issues. Given that the review of Scotland’s approach to antisocial behaviour found that third sector organisations were often highly effective in intervention and prevention, it is disappointing that the very organisations that can tackle the issues are struggling. Earlier this year, the investing in communities fund, which aims to address poverty and disadvantage by funding third sector projects, was cut. When that is combined with local government and Police Scotland underfunding, our capacity to prevent antisocial behaviour is weakened.
Antisocial behaviour is not some minor issue. It causes anxiety and fear, and it makes our communities less welcoming. There are multiple drivers of such behaviour, which cannot be solved in one fell swoop, but the public must have confidence that, if they report antisocial behaviour, they will be listened to.
17:43Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 7 November 2024
Foysol Choudhury
My constituent Andrea cares for her daughters, who are full-time wheelchair users. Her home is not large enough for wheelchairs or for the specialised bed that has been recommended by her daughters’ physiotherapist. Andrea has applied for adapted housing but, despite her daughters living in pain, there are not enough suitable homes, so they are stuck on a waiting list. Will the First Minister look into my constituent’s case? Does he recognise that the severe shortage of social housing for disabled people means that Andrea’s case will be far from unique?
