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 2048 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 1 February 2024
Bob Doris
Good morning.
My understanding is that levels of fraud are relatively low, as far as we know, but there will have to be robust processes and procedures in this country soon anyway, because the legislation will require Social Security Scotland to request that clients provide information for audit purposes. How does the agency intend to use the new powers, proportionately and appropriately, to help to estimate client-induced fraud and error?
11:00Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 1 February 2024
Bob Doris
In the year ahead, we will see completion of the roll-out of the carer support payment, following the pilot. We will also see new pension-age benefits being introduced. I am conscious that the case load for pension-age winter heating payments will be around 1 million claimants. That is far in excess of any other benefit that Social Security Scotland has had to cope with. I am not casting any aspersions, but it is reasonable for us to ask: are you prepared for that, are you confident and is planning going well?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 1 February 2024
Bob Doris
We would welcome that, Mr MacPhail. I take it from your comments that you are making the point that, although the scale is substantial, the complexity does not give you any concerns at this stage.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 1 February 2024
Bob Doris
Thank you.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 1 February 2024
Bob Doris
Thank you.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Homelessness and Temporary Accommodation
Meeting date: 1 February 2024
Bob Doris
Is that in the short term or the longer term? At face value, I can see that a disruption in the longer-term investment programme could cause poorer outcomes in the longer term, but, in the short term, what impact is the cut in the capital budget likely to have on homelessness?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Homelessness and Temporary Accommodation
Meeting date: 1 February 2024
Bob Doris
That is helpful. Mr MacRae has mentioned the possibility of a change of Government at Westminster, which is an important point. It is also important to put on the record that any incoming Labour Government has not committed to ending the bedroom tax either. Indeed, Labour brought it in. That is now on the record.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 1 February 2024
Bob Doris
I apologise for cutting across you.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 1 February 2024
Bob Doris
I suppose that we will get a bit more detail at a later date anyway, but can you give an example of the client information that you might require, not to interrogate an individual but in order to use their data to get a feeling of what fraud looks like among agency claimants more generally? Can you give me an actual example? Then we can move on to the next question.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Homelessness and Temporary Accommodation
Meeting date: 1 February 2024
Bob Doris
I suppose that it is a financial question, Mr McBride. I take the view that at the point of transition, when a positive outcome is reached, there should be cash from the United Kingdom Home Office and the UK Government to support that transition. The UK Home Office has taken a very different view. That said, though, it is everyone’s responsibility—the UK Government’s, the Scottish Government’s and all Scottish local authorities’, not just Glasgow’s—to get together and do the best they can. If there was more money, could you use that money to find a solution? What would that solution look like in the short term? What conversations are on-going about funding?
