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 857 contributions
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Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Scottish Government’s International Work
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
Returning to the issue of policy coherence and what we all understand that to mean, in the past, many people in the Parliament, the Government and elsewhere have talked about mainstreaming interest and involvement in the work of the Government’s international development department across all parts of Government and the public sector.
Where do you think that we have reached on that agenda, whether on practical issues, such as how we distribute surplus equipment or how we involve different areas of Government in that enterprise, or, more broadly, on awareness in different parts of Government and the public sector of the importance of work in Malawi and elsewhere? I put that question first to David Hope-Jones and then to Lewis Ryder-Jones.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Scottish Government’s International Work
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
My example about hospital equipment was not meant to cover the breadth of policy coherence, although you make a very fair point. What I am driving at is whether other parts of Government are becoming more aware of the very important issues that you have just mentioned. Is it possible to ensure that those ideas are not completely corralled within your department? That is what I am driving at.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
United Kingdom Internal Market
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
Thank you. I am very grateful for that answer.
I have a final, brief question for Ms Merelie. I think that it was you who mentioned the on-going factual context of the particular situation in Northern Ireland. I appreciate that it is not the same situation as Scotland’s, but, if there is an on-going policy intention in Scotland, which appears to be becoming consistent, of keeping pace with European requirements, is there also a factual context that is building up around Scotland that has to be borne in mind?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
United Kingdom Internal Market
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
This question is directed to Rachel Merelie. I appreciate that you are not a political body and are not making political decisions, so please do not think that I am in any way holding you accountable for this, but how are you, as a body, going to navigate the reality that you are implementing an act that does not enjoy overall political support in Scotland?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Scottish Government’s International Work
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
I would like to ask David Hope-Jones how our understanding of climate justice has developed post-COP and post the review of international development policy in Scotland; if you wish, you can answer specifically on Malawi. Lewis Ryder-Jones might want to respond on that issue, too.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
Before I ask specifically about the islands, I will think about the Highlands and Islands a little and ask about the Crofting Commission, if I may, convener.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
The budget for the Crofting Commission seems to be up. Will you say a bit more about the plans for how to use that budget in new ways this year, cabinet secretary? You will be more than aware of people’s frustrations regarding delays when dealing with the Crofting Commission, which, I hasten to add, is not a criticism of its staff.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Impact of European Union Exit
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
We have rightly talked for a while about the legislative and constitutional fallout from Brexit. I will ask a little about the economic consequences in rural Scotland, particularly the impact on population in rural areas. You will be relieved to know that I will not give a village-by-village account of the impact of Brexit on population in my constituency. Suffice it to say that there are fragile communities where it has made a difference. What evidence or information do you have about the impact on rural Scotland of the absence to some extent of people from eastern Europe?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Impact of European Union Exit
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
Earlier, you touched on the UK Government’s approach to finding responses—“solutions” is perhaps too strong a word—to some of these issues. For instance, approaches have been made for lorry drivers and care workers. Those proposals have been for relatively short-term interventions on visas, for example. Given the interconnected nature of communities and local economies in rural Scotland, do those short-term proposals work there, or do we need longer-term solutions?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
Before I ask about issues relating to the funding of island areas in the budget, I will ask another question relating to islands and, in some ways, to crofting. You are very aware of the housing problems on the islands. We have spoken before about your not being the housing minister, but where, in the Government’s thinking, does the rural housing crisis come into your work?
