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 2261 contributions
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Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
Is the committee content with the instrument?
No member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed.
10:27 Meeting continued in private until 11:47.Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
Under agenda item 4, we are considering five affirmative instruments.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
Does the committee wish to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on the general reporting ground in respect of the incorrect reference in paragraph 4(3) of new schedule 8A to the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Order 2020, which is inserted by article 27 of the instrument, to article 18(11) of the free allocation regulation, which should have been to article 18a(11) of that regulation?
No member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed.
Does the committee also wish to welcome that the Scottish Government is liaising with the other United Kingdom Administrations with a view to correcting the error at the next available opportunity?
No member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
The instrument relates to the phasing-in of border controls on imports of certain goods following EU withdrawal. It breaches section 28(2) of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, as it was laid on 22 December 2021 and came into force on 1 January 2022.
Does the committee wish to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on reporting ground (j), in relation to the failure to lay the instrument in accordance with laying requirements under the 2010 act?
No member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed.
The Scottish Government has provided an explanation of the reasons for the failure in a letter to the Presiding Officer and in response to the committee’s written questions. All of the committee’s correspondence on today’s instruments can be found in paper 3 of the online papers. Clearly, there is an issue between the Scottish Government and the UK Government. I suggest that we highlight that to the subject committee, which is planning to look at the instrument next week. It can then make any decision that it wishes to take as a result.
No member has indicated that they are not content with that course of action or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed on that.
Finally under this agenda item, no points have been raised on the following instrument.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instrument subject to Made Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Stuart McMillan
Thank you, Mr Simpson. I echo those comments, particularly regarding clarity for members of the public. Anyone who is a lawyer will be able to navigate their way around the situation, but I suggest that, in order to give clarity for members of the public in what is a fast-moving situation—we have seen a number of regulations in the area—the Scottish Government needs to improve. This is not a common occurrence by any manner of means. This is the first time that it has happened, as we will all acknowledge. However, I agree that we should write to the minister to highlight our concerns.
Does the committee also wish to note that the Scottish Government undertakes to clarify the anomaly in the instrument’s title in footnotes to subsequent amending instruments?
Other than the comments that have been made, no member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed on both points.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Stuart McMillan
Is the committee content with the instruments?
No member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Stuart McMillan
Under agenda item 3, we are considering instruments subject to the negative procedure. An issue has been raised on the following instrument.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instrument subject to Made Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Stuart McMillan
The instrument is one of a series of instruments that amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) Regulations 2021. Usual drafting practice requires that each amending instrument in a series should reflect the title of the principal regulations that it amends and should include a number indicating the number of Scottish statutory instruments amending the principal instrument in that year. However, when referring to the principal regulations, the title of this instrument refers to “Public Health” rather than “Health Protection”. The Scottish Government has confirmed that that was an error.
The next correctly designated instrument amending the consolidated international travel regulations is also numbered 13. The number in the title of further amending instruments will therefore not accurately reflect the number of instruments that have amended the international travel regulations in 2021. The Scottish Government confirmed that it does not propose to amend the citation provision in regulation 1 of the instrument, because that could cause further confusion. Instead, it will draw users’ attention to the instrument in footnotes in subsequent instruments, where appropriate.
Does the committee agree to report the instrument on the general reporting ground, in respect of a failure to follow proper drafting practice in the title of the instrument?
Mr Simpson wishes to comment.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Stuart McMillan
Under agenda item 2, we are considering instruments subject to the affirmative procedure. No points have been raised on the following draft instruments.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Stuart McMillan
Is the committee content with the instruments?
No member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed.
