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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Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Stuart McMillan
Is the committee content with the instruments?
Members indicated agreement.
10:10 Meeting continued in private until 11:29.Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
This Scottish statutory instrument amends the principal regulations to add into the scheme further cuts of pigmeat for which aid may be granted. It also amends the closing date for applications, from 28 February to 31 March 2022.
Under section 28(2) of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, instruments subject to the negative procedure are required to be laid at least 28 days before they come into force, not counting recess periods of more than four days.
In correspondence with the committee, the Scottish Government explained that it considered that it was necessary for the amendments to come into force on 15 January 2022—rather than at a later date to enable compliance with the 28-day rule—in order to maximise the benefit of the scheme to the industry. That was to avoid delays in applications to the scheme and the consequent backlog of pigs on farms.
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.
At the same time, is the committee content with the explanation that the Scottish Government has provided for the breach of the laying requirement?
No member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed.
Finally, no points have been raised on the following instruments.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
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.
The next meeting of the committee will take place on Tuesday 1 February 2022.
Meeting closed at 10:03.Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instrument subject to Made Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
Welcome to the third meeting in 2022 of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. As we are meeting fully online again today, it will be more challenging for members to indicate agreement to the items being discussed. I therefore ask you to raise your hand if you are not content with a question that is put or if you wish to speak about an instrument.
Under the first item of business, we are considering one instrument, on which no points have been raised.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instrument subject to Made Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 25 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.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
Under our second and final agenda item, we are considering five instruments. An issue has been raised on the following instrument.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018: Instrument Procedure and Category
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
Under agenda item 2, we are considering one instrument.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018: Instrument Procedure and Category
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
The committee is considering whether the appropriate scrutiny procedure and the appropriate category have been applied to the instrument. The instrument relates to the start date from which imports of animal products and certain plants, plant products and other objects to Scotland from European Union, European Economic Area and related countries will be subject to additional requirements.
The instrument has been laid under the negative procedure and is considered by the Scottish Government to be of low significance.
Is the committee content that the appropriate scrutiny procedure and categorisation have been applied to the instrument?
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 Made Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
The instrument amends the requirements and restrictions that affect international travellers arriving in Scotland. A number of issues have been raised on the instrument. I will cover each in turn.
First, regulation 7 amends the principal international travel regulations to insert regulation 16A, which requires eligible vaccinated arrivals to report the outcome of a day 2 lateral flow device test, and to insert regulation 16B, which requires such people to take a confirmatory test from a public provider if their lateral flow test result is positive. Neither the principal regulations nor this instrument specifies that the confirmatory test should be a PCR—polymerase chain reaction—test, although the policy note and Scottish Government guidance indicate that the confirmatory test should be a PCR test.
Does the committee wish to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on reporting ground (h), on the basis that the meaning of the instrument could be clearer that the confirmatory test that is taken by an eligible vaccinated arrival following a positive day 2 lateral flow device test must be a PCR test? In so doing, does the committee wish to call on the Scottish Government to amend new regulation 16B of the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 to define the term “confirmatory test” at the next legislative opportunity?
No member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed.
10:15Secondly, the policy note and the letter to the Presiding Officer that accompany the instrument state that the amended definition of World Health Organization list vaccines in regulation 3 comes into force at 4 am on 10 January 2022, alongside the changes to the list of relevant countries that can provide acceptable vaccination certification in schedule 1A. However, regulation 1 provides that regulation 3 came into force at 4 am on the earlier date of 7 January.
The Scottish Government confirmed that the commencement of regulation 3 on 7 January is an error. The change should have been implemented in Scotland at the same time as in England, on 10 January. As a result, it is possible that some travellers may have been classed as eligible vaccinated arrivals in Scotland sooner than intended.
Does the committee wish to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on reporting ground (i), on the basis that its drafting appears to be defective?
No member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed.
Finally, the instrument is in breach of laying requirements in section 30(2) of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, which provides that an instrument not subject to the negative or affirmative procedure must be laid before the Scottish Parliament as soon as practicable after the legislation is made, and in any event before the legislation is due to come into force. Regulations 1 to 5, 8, 9, 12 and 13 came into force at 4 am on 7 January, and the instrument came into force at 9.30 am later the same day.
Does the committee wish to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on reporting ground (j), on the basis that it fails to comply with the laying requirements?
No member has indicated that they are not content or that they wish to speak, so we are agreed.
Also under this agenda item, no technical points have been raised on the following instrument.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Made Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Stuart McMillan
The instrument provides for the removal of the capacity limits on live events outdoors and removes the requirement for 1m physical distancing at outdoor event venues, outdoor exhibitions and outdoor spaces in sports stadia. It also amends the definition of the term “fully vaccinated” to introduce booster vaccinations.
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.
