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 3582 contributions
|
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 26 June 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Are colleagues content with that? I very much doubt that much can happen during this session of Parliament, even if work is being taken forward, because we have only 18 months of the session left to run. Nonetheless, the Government’s view is that it is still undertaking that work.
Are members content to close the petition?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 26 June 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Are colleagues content to proceed on that basis?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 26 June 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Good morning and welcome to the 12th meeting in 2024 of the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee. First, we have our customary item inviting colleagues to agree to take an agenda item in private. Are members content to do that for agenda item 4, under which we will consider our approach to the draft report of our inquiry into the A9 dualling project?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 26 June 2024
Jackson Carlaw
PE1885, which was lodged by Karen Murphy, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to make the offering of community shared ownership a mandatory requirement of all planning proposals for wind farm developments. We last considered the petition on 25 October, when we agreed to clarify what power the Scottish Government might have in relation to mandating CSO through the devolved power under the Electricity Act 1989.
The then Minister for Energy and Environment confirmed that, in the Scottish Government’s view, any legislation relating to how consents for electricity generation stations are granted would relate to a reserved matter, which puts the issue beyond the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. Her submission highlights the onshore wind sector deal, which is described as
“a collaborative commitment to develop practical approaches to support and encourage CSO models”
aiming
“to assist developers, funders, local government and communities to engage in these opportunities”.
A framework is due for publication by the end of this year.
In response to the minister, the petitioner’s submission reiterates her view that industry will ignore the Scottish Government’s plans unless CSO is made mandatory. She reiterates her main call, which is for CSO to be made mandatory through use of devolved land and tax powers.
The committee also asked for an update on the work that is being undertaken by the Scottish Government, the Scottish National Investment Bank, Local Energy Scotland, communities and developers. The SNIB’s response outlines that
“work includes assessing the scale and level of interest at a community level, developer considerations, how to best cater for community engagement on complex financial transactions, and the current appetite within the private sector to fund shared ownership models.”
There are quite a lot of responses and material to consider. Do colleagues have any suggestions for action?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 26 June 2024
Jackson Carlaw
PE1986 is on providing testing kits for drugs in public spaces. It was lodged by Andy Paterson on behalf of the help not harm campaign. It was last considered on 23 October.
The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to provide free testing kits for drugs in public spaces, such as local pharmacies, libraries and university buildings. The Scottish Government’s response to our correspondence reiterates that self-testing drug-checking kits do not offer the same in-depth analysis and harm-reduction advice that is offered by drug-checking facilities.
The submission also details the progress that is now being made towards piloting drug-checking facilities in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow. The Scottish Government received more information from the Home Office about controlled drug licence applications for each area and anticipated that applications would soon be made. Do members have any comments or suggestions for action?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 26 June 2024
Jackson Carlaw
In the light of the Scottish Government’s responses, and Mr Golden’s recommendation, which summarised them, are we content to close the petition?
Members indicated agreement.
We thank the petitioner for lodging the petition and hope very much that the progress that the Scottish Government has identified is realised in the months ahead.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 26 June 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Following the various discussions that we have had, we are persuaded by the important considerations that underlie the petition. Notwithstanding the evidence that we have heard from ministers, the committee will make a unanimous, clear and direct recommendation that the Government act in accordance with our recommendations.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 26 June 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Let us hope that that makes progress. It is quite unusual for the committee to issue very specific recommendations in that way. Given the evidence that we have heard, the Government really ought to pay some attention to our recommendations. I hope that we are accordingly able to make progress on the petition on behalf of the petitioners.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 26 June 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Are members content to keep the petition open and to write to the First Minister in the terms suggested by Mr Torrance?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 26 June 2024
Jackson Carlaw
That brings us to the last of today’s new petitions, PE2096, which was lodged by Eleanor Fraser. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to start a review of the council tax system to consider whether rates could be set per capita, rather than by property value.
In its response, the Scottish Government states that the Scottish ministers have pursued various means of identifying an alternative to the council tax system and highlights the work of the joint working group on sources of local government funding and council tax reform. The submission states that the group is progressing the second phase of its work, which focuses on longer-term reform.
Do members have any comments or suggestions for action??
