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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Meeting of the Parliament
Urgent Questions
Meeting date: 14 May 2021
John Swinney
I add a word of welcome to you, Presiding Officer, in your role.
The national qualifications 2021 group, which includes representatives of local authorities, teaching unions, pupils, parents, colleges and the Scottish Government, was established in response to a recommendation from Professor Priestley, and it has designed the alternative certification model, which is being used for the assessments this year. Young people’s grades will be determined by the judgment of teachers, which will be informed by evidence of demonstrated attainment of student achievement over a number of assessments rather than an end-of-year exam.
The unavoidable second period of remote learning since January has, unfortunately, meant that students are doing assessments for this year’s alternative certification model over a shorter period than was anticipated. To address that, coursework has been reduced for most subjects, and schools have been given flexibility around timing and the nature of the assessment tools that they will use to inform teacher judgment of learners’ grades, which will not subsequently be overturned by the SQA. The national qualifications 2021 group has also announced that there will be a contingency arrangement for any learners who are impacted by severe disruption to learning and are unable to generate sufficient assessment evidence before the extended deadline of 25 June.
The system is working to deliver the best approach possible in the circumstances, to ensure that the hard work of learners is recognised fairly. All partners are working together to do everything that can be done to support that process and our young people. We know that this is an anxious time for learners, and we continue to act to ensure that all learners have the support that they require.
Meeting of the Parliament
Urgent Questions
Meeting date: 14 May 2021
John Swinney
Thank you, Presiding Officer.
Fundamentally, the answer to Mr Doris’s question is yes. In the circular that the national qualifications group has issued today, there is a line that is highlighted and that perhaps sums up the point most effectively. It says:
“Our key message to learners is that your grades will be judged by your teachers and lecturers, based on your assessment evidence and every effort is being made to ensure equity and support your wellbeing throughout the process.”
The issues that Mr Doris raises about irregular access to or interruption of education are legitimate issues that are to be borne in mind by teachers in forming their judgments, which will ultimately determine the grades that are awarded to individual students, based on their contribution during the year.
Meeting of the Parliament
Urgent Questions
Meeting date: 14 May 2021
John Swinney
I would contend that we did heed Professor Priestley’s advice and that I took early decisions in October to cancel the national 5 examination diet and in December to cancel the higher examination diet and replace it with an alternative certification model, which we indicated at the time would require demonstrated attainment of student achievement to inform the grades that would be supplied by teachers. I stress once again that the grades that are put in by teachers will be the determinant of young people’s performance, and they will not be overturned by the SQA once they are submitted, on 25 June, unless there is demonstrable administrative error in the process.
We have followed the advice of Professor Priestley’s review. We took early decisions to cancel the examinations and to replace them with a reliable means of ensuring that young people’s attainment can be properly recorded to provide them with a platform for the next stages in their educational life.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Oaths and Affirmations
Meeting date: 13 May 2021
John Swinney
took the oath.
