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 876 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Education and Life Chances of Children and Young People
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Foysol Choudhury
I have spoken in the chamber previously about the importance of educating children on Scotland’s ties with colonialism and the role that black and minority ethnic people have had in Scotland’s colonial past. Currently, it is not compulsory for schools in Scotland to educate students of any age on Scotland’s colonial past and its role in the British empire and the transatlantic slave trade. Mandatory primary education on such matters would ensure that, from a young age, children have a realistic understanding of Scotland’s history, what has been done to overcome that, and how we can strive to improve that in the future. Does the cabinet secretary agree that a mandatory primary curriculum on Scotland’s history of colonisation, slavery and empire is essential to ensure that all children receive an education that redresses historical inequality and supports the growth of our progressive and diverse nation?
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 12 January 2023
Foysol Choudhury
Multiple constituents have approached me, as parents, with their concerns about how schools are treating their child with autism and the impact that that has on their child’s mental health. What action is the Scottish Government taking to ensure that children with autism are offered sufficient mental health support in school and that safeguards exist against poor practice?
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 11 January 2023
Foysol Choudhury
Will the minister please advise members of the Scottish Government’s plans to ensure that Historic Environment Scotland’s properties will be able to open to a sufficient degree to allow HES’s revenue to rise as predicted in the budget?
Meeting of the Parliament
Decision Time
Meeting date: 11 January 2023
Foysol Choudhury
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I am not sure whether my vote was recorded.
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 11 January 2023
Foysol Choudhury
In June 2022, I asked the First Minister what action the Scottish Government would take to support police officers who were struggling with the cost of living crisis. The First Minister responded by saying:
“we will continue to value them not just in rhetoric but in action.”—[Official Report, 30 June 2022; c 21.]
Will the cabinet secretary please outline what action has since been taken to support police officers with the cost of living crisis to mitigate the potential impact of financial strain on their mental health?
Meeting of the Parliament
National Health Service (Winter Pressures)
Meeting date: 10 January 2023
Foysol Choudhury
Constituents in Lothian region have struggled to get through to a call handler on NHS 24, which is causing distress and anxiety to those who are ill and do not know where to turn. As a result, they might be more likely to attend A and E unnecessarily to get medical attention, thereby increasing pressure on NHS services that are already at breaking point this winter.
Will the cabinet secretary advise what support will be given to constituents who are desperately trying to get help from NHS 24 before the recruitment of new starts is completed by March? More than 100 trained staff are being let go from the Covid national contact centre. Could those workers be reassigned to assist?
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 22 December 2022
Foysol Choudhury
I would like to raise with the First Minister the case of a constituent who has contacted me after being told that the waiting list for a YAG laser capsulotomy treatment can be as long as 70 weeks. That constituent is going blind, struggling to care for disabled children and having difficulty sleeping because he needs the procedure.
I have already raised the matter with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, who blamed the pandemic for the waiting times. Contrary to the cabinet secretary’s response, though, NHS Lothian has told me that the waiting times are not in fact down to Covid but instead down to lack of lasers available to perform the treatment.
I therefore ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to ensure that the NHS has the equipment that it needs to tackle the waiting list. Is it acceptable for people with failing eyesight to be told that they are on a 16-month waiting list for a treatment that typically takes only a few minutes?
Meeting of the Parliament
Point of Order
Meeting date: 22 December 2022
Foysol Choudhury
I thank the minister for that answer, but does he agree with me that, this winter, the situation facing social care workers—who have, for too long, been underpaid and undervalued in our society—is another example of why they cannot afford to wait for a national care service before they see real improvement in their working conditions?
Meeting of the Parliament
Point of Order
Meeting date: 22 December 2022
Foysol Choudhury
To ask the Scottish Government what specific measures are being taken to support social care workers during the cost of living crisis. (S6O-01722)
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Foysol Choudhury
Good morning, minister, colleagues and the team. Last week, the committee was given evidence of fuel poverty rates across Scotland. Will the move to break the link with the weather not further disadvantage some already fuel-poor areas such as in the Highlands and Islands, for example?
