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 12242 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Alison Johnstone
Pauline McNeill joins us remotely.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is a statement by Nicola Sturgeon on Scottish Government priorities. The First Minister will take questions at the end of her statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions.
14:19Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Decision Time
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Alison Johnstone
The final question is, that motion S6M-00128, in the name of John Swinney, on approval of a Scottish statutory instrument, be agreed to.
Motion agreed to,
That the Parliament agrees that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 17) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/136) be approved.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Business Motion
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is consideration of business motion S6M-000124, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, setting out a business programme.
Motion moved,
That the Parliament agrees—
(a) the following programme of business—
Tuesday 1 June 2021
2.00 pm Time for Reflection
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
followed by Topical Questions (if selected)
followed by First Minister’s Statement: COVID-19 Update
followed by Scottish Government Debate: Health Recovery
followed by Committee Announcements
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
5.00 pm Decision Time
Wednesday 2 June 2021
2.00 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.00 pm Scottish Government Debate: Economic Recovery
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
followed by Approval of SSIs (if required)
5.00 pm Decision Time
Thursday 3 June 2021
12.00 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
12.00 pm First Minister’s Questions
2.00 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.00 pm Scottish Government Debate: Education
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
5.00 pm Decision Time
Tuesday 8 June 2021
2.00 pm Time for Reflection
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
followed by Topical Questions (if selected)
followed by First Minister’s Statement: COVID-19 Update
followed by Scottish Government Business
followed by Committee Announcements
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
5.00 pm Decision Time
followed by Members’ Business
Wednesday 9 June 2021
2.00 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.00 pm Portfolio Questions:
Net Zero, Energy and Transport;
Rural Affairs and Islands
followed by Scottish Government Business
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
followed by Approval of SSIs (if required)
5.00 pm Decision Time
followed by Members’ Business
Thursday 10 June 2021
12.00 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
12.00 pm First Minister’s Questions
2.30 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.30 pm Portfolio Questions:
Health and Social Care
followed by Scottish Government Business
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
5.00 pm Decision Time
(b) that, for the purposes of Portfolio Questions in the week beginning 7 June, in rule 13.7.3, after the word “except” the words “to the extent to which the Presiding Officer considers that the questions are on the same or similar subject matter or” are inserted.—[George Adam]
Motion agreed to.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Parliamentary Bureau Motions
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is consideration of two Parliamentary Bureau motions. I ask George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, to move motions S6M-00125 on parliamentary recess dates, and S6M-00126 on the office of the clerk.
Motions moved,
That the Parliament agrees the following parliamentary recess dates under Rule 2.3.1: 26 June to 29 August 2021 (inclusive), 9 to 24 October 2021 (inclusive), 24 December 2021 to 9 January 2022 (inclusive).
That the Parliament agrees that, between 1 June 2021 and 31 January 2022, the Office of the Clerk will be open on all days except: Saturdays and Sundays, 17 September, 26 November, 24 December (pm), 27 and 28 December 2021, and 3 and 4 January 2022.—[George Adam]
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Parliamentary Bureau Motions
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Alison Johnstone
The question on the motions will be put at decision time.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Decision Time
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Alison Johnstone
I propose to ask a single question on two Parliamentary Bureau motions. As no member has objected, the question is, that motions S6M-00125 and S6M-00126, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, be agreed to.
Motions agreed to,
That the Parliament agrees the following parliamentary recess dates under Rule 2.3.1: 26 June to 29 August 2021 (inclusive), 9 to 24 October 2021 (inclusive), 24 December 2021 to 9 January 2022 (inclusive).
That the Parliament agrees that, between 1 June 2021 and 31 January 2022, the Office of the Clerk will be open on all days except: Saturdays and Sundays, 17 September, 26 November, 24 December (pm), 27 and 28 December 2021, and 3 and 4 January 2022.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Parliamentary Bureau Motions
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is consideration of motion S6M-00128, on approval of a Scottish statutory instrument. I ask John Swinney, on behalf of the Scottish Government, to speak to and move the motion.
15:29Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Alison Johnstone
That concludes questions on the First Minister’s statement on Scottish Government priorities. I remind members that social distancing measures are in place in the chamber and across the campus, and I ask members to take care to observe those measures, including when entering and exiting the chamber.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Point of Order
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Alison Johnstone
I thank the member for advance notice of her point of order but, as she will be aware, I am not responsible for the accuracy of members’ contributions in the chamber. However, the member will also be aware that a corrections mechanism is available to members, and the guidance on that mechanism sets out the steps that a member should take if they realise that they have provided incorrect information, as well as the steps to take if they consider that another member has provided incorrect information.
