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 2087 contributions
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Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments not subject to Parliamentary Procedure
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Stuart McMillan
Under item 4, we are considering two instruments, on which no points have been raised.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Stuart McMillan
Is the committee content with the instruments?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments not subject to Parliamentary Procedure
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Stuart McMillan
Is the committee content with the instruments?
Members indicated agreement.
14:50 Meeting continued in private until 15:18.Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Stuart McMillan
Under item 3, we are considering seven instruments. Issues have been raised on two of the instruments for breach of section 28(2) of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, which requires that instruments subject to the negative procedure must be laid at least 28 days before they come into force, not counting recess periods of more than four days.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Stuart McMillan
Is the committee content with the instruments?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Stuart McMillan
The first instrument that is in breach of the 2010 act is made under powers in Council regulation 576/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, on the non-commercial movement of pet animals. The regulations amend annex 4 to that Council regulation, which sets out the validity requirements for rabies antibody titration tests on pet dogs, cats and ferrets that are moved into Great Britain. The amendments extend the ability of Scottish ministers, from 1 October 2022 to 1 April 2023, to authorise an alternative test that has a faster turnaround time of two to three days.
The instrument breaches the 2010 act, as it was laid on 31 August and will come into force on 1 October 2022. In correspondence with the Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government explained that the need to extend the ability to administer the alternative test beyond 1 October 2022 became apparent during the summer recess. The extension is also being brought into force at the same time in England and Wales, in order to ensure that there is no disruption to the operational delivery of the work and the best use of quarantine facilities throughout Great Britain.
Does the committee wish to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on reporting ground (j), for failure to comply with laying requirements? At the same time, is the committee content with the explanation that the Scottish Government has provided for the breach of the laying requirements?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Stuart McMillan
The second instrument that is in breach of the 2010 act extends the effect of food labelling transitional provisions until the end of 2023. The transitional provisions were due to expire at the end of September 2022.
The instrument breaches the 2010 act, as it was laid on 5 September and will come into force on 30 September 2022. In correspondence with the Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government explained that it was unable to comply with the laying requirements because of the timing of the announcement from the United Kingdom Government that the import controls on goods from the European Union to Great Britain were to be delayed from July 2022 until the end of 2023.
The Scottish Government also explained that it was necessary to breach the 28-day rule so that the transitional provisions would be extended beyond 30 September as intended, and therefore that labelling requirements remain in line with those in England and Wales.
Does the committee wish to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on reporting ground (j), for failure to comply with laying requirements? At the same time, is the committee content with the explanation that the Scottish Government has provided for the breach of the laying requirements?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Stuart McMillan
Welcome to the 23rd meeting in 2022 of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. The first item of business is to decide whether to take item 5 in private. Is the committee content to take item 5 in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Stuart McMillan
The instrument makes saving provisions in consequence of the expiry of part 1 of the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 and part 1 of the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No 2) Act 2020.
Under section 28(2) of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, instruments subject to the negative procedure must be laid at least 28 days before they come into force, not counting recess periods of more than four days.?The instrument breaches that requirement, as it was laid on 30 August 2022 and will come into force on 1 October 2022.
In correspondence with the Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government explained that it was unable to lay the instrument in late June to allow the full 28 days before coming into force. That was due to the fact that the final stages of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022 were also taking place at that time and may have necessitated further provision in the instrument.
Does the committee wish to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on reporting ground (j), for failure to comply with laying requirements? At the same time, is the committee content with the explanation that the Scottish Government has provided for the breach of the laying requirements?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Stuart McMillan
Also under this agenda item, no points have been raised on the following instruments.
