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 1777 contributions
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Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Claire Baker
The commitment is quite long term. You are looking to halve the disability employment gap by 2038. Are there interim targets? Is there a pathway that has been set out, or does that depend on having the data? There have been successes, but do you know why we are having successes and where we need to focus policy? Are there interim targets, and is there a clear pathway towards meeting the 2038 target?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Claire Baker
We have heard a lot about the need for in-work support. It is good when someone is in employment, but it is important to provide that future support.
I bring in Michelle Thomson, to be followed by Colin Smyth.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Claire Baker
We will speak to the Education, Children and Young People Committee about the work that it is doing.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Claire Baker
Before I bring in Maggie Chapman, I will just say that what Enable Scotland described in its evidence about the private and public sectors was that there is more flexibility in the private sector. We heard that it was easier for it to make connections with the private sector. It runs things such as academies, where it takes in maybe 10 clients who spent a week at a workplace and would then go through the formal application process. Enable found that the public sector does not have the same degree of flexibility and responsiveness as the private sector. It is not that the public sector is reluctant to employ people; the issue is that in the private sector the lead-in time is better and the relationship building is easier. That gives a bit more background to what we have just been discussing.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Claire Baker
I will soon bring in Fiona Hyslop.
You referred to the fair work action plan. There are only two references to people with learning disabilities in that plan. Maggie Chapman asked about our being at risk of reaching a plateau in progress. The Fraser of Allander Institute report to which I referred earlier indicates that people with learning disabilities remain those who are furthest away from the workforce. There is not enough progress being made in that respect. If we do not make progress in that area we risk not meeting the target. Does the Scottish Government agree with that analysis, and is there a clear focus on people with learning disabilities being a group whom we need to concentrate on if we are to meet the target?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Claire Baker
That is helpful.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Claire Baker
We met clients in Dundee, and it was great to hear about their experiences of support and how it had changed their lives. However, in Dundee, we also discussed unmet need. Although the organisation there works with quite a lot of people, it still recognises that there is huge unmet need out there among people who are not accessing services and not getting into employment. There is untapped potential and opportunity in our workforce. We want the Government to ensure that the target is reached, that more investment is put in and that that group is supported.
My final question is on the Social Enterprise Scotland report that referred to the pay gap. As well as the disability employment gap, there is a pay gap—for every £1 that a non-disabled employee earns, a disabled employee earns 83p. There is a gap of almost £4,000 between the yearly salaries. Does that come under the Government’s fair work agenda? Has it been looked at? How do we address the pay gap for disabled people?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Claire Baker
Good morning, and welcome to the fourth meeting in 2023 of the Economy and Fair Work Committee. Our first item of business is a decision on taking item 3 in private. Are members content to take that item in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Claire Baker
Thank you.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Claire Baker
I have a couple of final questions. Written submissions from Enable Scotland and Social Enterprise Scotland have said that the focus has been on providing support to get disabled people into work but that that maybe does not recognise the importance of in-work support and the need to ensure that it is sufficiently funded to enable people to retain employment.
Enable Scotland has pretty good figures on retention, but that has been achieved through one-to-one support from workers who are not overloaded by their case load and who can provide the level of support that people need. Is it recognised as an important part of the strategy to increase employability and decrease the gap that the issue is about not just getting people into jobs—although that will have an impact on the gap—but is also abut retention and keeping people in employment?
We heard yesterday about career progression. It is not just about getting people into employment; it is also about the ambition and aspirations that can be achieved through that. Is that recognised as an important part of what we need to do?
10:45