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 2327 contributions
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Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Stuart McMillan
We move on to section 19 of the bill, which provides that, unless the trust deed says otherwise, trustees could use a nominee in respect of any of the trustees’ powers. A nominee is someone to whom a trustee transfers ownership of trust property, often for investment purposes. The law firm CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang is concerned that, as it is currently drafted, section 19 of the bill on nominees may not go far enough in capturing the ways in which trusts are used in the financial services sector. Specifically, the firm has said that doubt would remain as to whether trustees can use nominee custody structures and sub-custodians.
Do the witnesses have any views on the current scope of section 19 and the risks identified by CMS?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Stuart McMillan
That is helpful; thank you.
10:26 Meeting suspended.10:31 On resuming—
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Stuart McMillan
I have a supplementary question for Alan Barr. You indicated that there is a spectrum of incapacity and that trusts might look at excluding people from specific aspects of decision making or from specific aspects of the trust. How easy or difficult would it be to do that?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Stuart McMillan
Do you wish to come in, Joseph?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Stuart McMillan
Okay. Thank you. Mercedes, do you have anything else to ask about?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Stuart McMillan
It might be worth while to consider the matter. If you were to think of anything after the meeting, you could always send it in.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Stuart McMillan
No—I am certainly not suggesting that.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Stuart McMillan
We move to section 19, on nominees. As I indicated to the previous panel, the law firm CMS is concerned that section 19, on nominees, as drafted, may not go far enough. Specifically, the firm said that “doubt” would remain as to whether trustees can use, first, nominee custody structures and, secondly, sub-custodians. What are the panel members’ views on both those aspects, which currently fall under the scope of section 19, and on the risks that CMS has identified?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Stuart McMillan
Would anyone else like to come in?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Stuart McMillan
We move to part 2 of the bill. The committee has heard suggestions of three policy proposals that could be added to part 2. First, last week, Professor Roderick Paisley suggested creating exceptions to legal rights as they currently apply to protect from disinheritance. Secondly, the Faculty of Advocates and Yvonne Evans suggested amending the current strict six-month time limit that applies to a cohabitant’s power to apply to the court for a share of the deceased’s estate. Thirdly, Professors Roderick Paisley and George Gretton suggested clarifying that the law does not permit an unlawful killer to be an executor of their victim’s estate. What are your views on those three proposals? Should they be added to part 2? Should any other changes be made to part 2?
10:15