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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 876 contributions
|
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Ukraine
Meeting date: 14 December 2023
Foysol Choudhury
I visited MS Victoria and MS Ambition, where I spoke with Ukrainians and saw the service that they were getting. They are now in temporary accommodation and I am not sure if they are getting the same sort of service as they were. You have mentioned that Edinburgh is struggling with the housing crisis, but every council in Scotland is in the same position. What discussions are you having with councils? It does not look as if the conflict will end soon, so what discussions are you having with councils about long-term housing?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
National Outcomes
Meeting date: 14 December 2023
Foysol Choudhury
My question is in line with those that my colleagues Donald Cameron and Mark Ruskell have already asked. How do we measure the impact of international offices on trade in comparison with places where we do not have international offices, such as Bangladesh and Brazil? I am thinking of measurable outcomes.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Ukraine
Meeting date: 14 December 2023
Foysol Choudhury
My last question is about the Westminster Government’s current immigration measures. Do you think that those will affect your negotiations with Ukrainians or with any other refugees who want to come to Scotland?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
National Outcomes
Meeting date: 14 December 2023
Foysol Choudhury
Do you believe that there is a need for the location of the Scottish Government’s international offices to be reviewed?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Ukraine
Meeting date: 14 December 2023
Foysol Choudhury
Kirstin McPhee mentioned the supersponsor scheme. Is that still open?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Ukraine
Meeting date: 14 December 2023
Foysol Choudhury
I note the requirement for a salary of £38,000.
Meeting of the Parliament
Human Rights of Asylum Seekers in Scotland (Report)
Meeting date: 12 December 2023
Foysol Choudhury
I also express my sorrow at the distressing news of the death of an individual on the Bibby Stockholm earlier today. My prayers are with their family and friends.
Scotland should be a welcoming and safe place for asylum seekers. In the past few years, the UK Tory Government has created a hostile environment for those who come here seeking asylum. As my colleague Paul O’Kane noted, the UK Government is, as we speak, debating an inhumane bill that seeks to ship those seeking asylum in the UK off to a third country. We also have the Illegal Migration Act, which may force many vulnerable asylum seekers into the hands of human traffickers and criminal gangs. That goes hand in hand with the newly announced salary threshold for skilled workers visas, which Alex Cole-Hamilton, John Swinney and others rightly condemned. As Fulton MacGregor said, the UK Government’s hostile legislation has led to the UK being painted as a country that does not welcome those who most need our help.
Meeting of the Parliament
Human Rights of Asylum Seekers in Scotland (Report)
Meeting date: 12 December 2023
Foysol Choudhury
I have a lot to get through.
That is why Scottish Labour supports the conclusions that were reached by the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee’s inquiry. That inquiry sent a strong message that we should be using the powers within our devolved competence to improve the lives of asylum seekers in Scotland.
Integration is important to that. As Kaukab Stewart said, the Scottish Government must use its devolved powers to ensure that asylum seekers are able to integrate fully into Scottish society. I look forward to the Scottish Government’s plan on how asylum seekers can be included in concessionary travel schemes, which is something that my colleague Paul Sweeney has been working on.
The Illegal Migration Act 2023 can amend the powers and duties of the Scottish ministers to help victims of human trafficking under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015. Miles Briggs commented that asylum seekers are among those who are most vulnerable to human trafficking and exploitation.
In October this year, I hosted a round table on the impact that the Illegal Migration Act 2023 may have on human trafficking and how it will interact with the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015. We heard from representatives of the Scottish Refugee Council, JustRight Scotland, Maryhill Integration Network and many more organisations about how the Illegal Migration Act has made life harder for survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery.
Under the act, survivors of trafficking who have received an initial reasonable grounds decision can be removed. Unaccompanied children arriving in Scotland can be subjected to mandatory scientific testing, including MRI scanning, to try to determine their age. If they refuse that, they will be processed as adults. The committee’s investigation makes clear that the Scottish Government can act within its devolved powers to mitigate that impact of the cruel Illegal Migration Act 2023—as it must. We need to concentrate action on that to protect victims of human trafficking and uphold, wherever possible, the right to seek asylum in Scotland.
The latest Home Office data shows that 662 asylum seekers were housed in hotels across 10 Scottish local authorities. In addition, 4,558 asylum seekers were living in dispersal accommodation. We must not forget the Ukrainian refugees hosted on temporary boats because suitable accommodation could not be found for them.
Those are not solutions. Currently, we face a housing crisis. The Scottish Refugee Council has warned that Home Office policies, such as giving people just seven days to leave asylum accommodation, mean that it could be a matter of time before someone dies on the streets due to a lack of housing. Let us be clear: that is not the fault of asylum seekers but is caused by a housing system that is not fit for purpose. The Scottish Government must provide a long-term housing plan. It must act on the conclusion of the inquiry to mitigate the damage of those inhumane Tory policies and ensure that asylum seekers are protected and welcomed in Scotland.
16:31Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Foysol Choudhury
Do you believe that, instead of the police, there should be a third party involved in recording or determining the sex of the person committing the rape?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Foysol Choudhury
I mean at the point of reporting. What I have heard in our discussion is that the petitioners want the person’s biological sex and gender identity to be recorded, but if the police are not recording that on the database, should a third party be involved?
