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 11879 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Decision Time
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Alison Johnstone
There will be a division.
There will be a short suspension to allow members to access the digital voting system.
17:02 Meeting suspended.17:08 On resuming—
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Decision Time
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Alison Johnstone
The question is, that motion S6M-03904, in the name of George Adam, on approval of an SSI, be agreed to. Members should cast their votes now.
John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP) rose—
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Alison Johnstone
We move to supplementary questions.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Scotland’s Vision for Trade (Annual Report)
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Alison Johnstone
I appreciate that the minister wishes to provide comprehensive responses, but several members would still like to put a question.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Scotland’s Vision for Trade (Annual Report)
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is a statement by Ivan McKee on “Scotland’s Vision for Trade Annual Report March 2022”. The minister will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interruptions or interventions.
14:59Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Point of Order
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Alison Johnstone
That is not a point of order, Ms Brown.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Decision Time
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Alison Johnstone
I propose to ask a single question on the remaining four Parliamentary Bureau motions. As no member has objected, the final question is, that motions S6M-03862, S6M-03903, S6M-03863 and S6M-03905, in the name of George Adam, on committee membership, substitution on committees and suspension and variation of standing orders, be agreed to.
Motions agreed to,
That the Parliament agrees that—
Graeme Dey be appointed to replace James Dornan as a member of the Education, Children and Young People Committee;
Ruth Maguire be appointed to replace Fergus Ewing as a member of the Education, Children and Young People Committee;
Marie McNair be appointed to replace Graeme Dey as a member of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee;
Paul McLennan be appointed to replace Marie McNair as a member of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee;
Fergus Ewing be appointed to replace Ruth Maguire as a member of the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee.
That the Parliament agrees that Annie Wells be appointed to replace Meghan Gallacher as a member of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.
That the Parliament agrees that—
Graeme Dey be appointed to replace Fergus Ewing as the Scottish National Party substitute on the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee;
Ruth Maguire be appointed to replace Emma Roddick as the Scottish National Party substitute on the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee;
Stuart McMillan be appointed to replace James Dornan as the Scottish National Party substitute on the COVID-19 Recovery Committee;
Fergus Ewing be appointed to replace Alasdair Allan as the Scottish National Party substitute on the Finance and Public Administration Committee.
That the Parliament agrees that, with effect from 1 April 2022, for the purposes of committee meetings up to 1 July 2022—
(a) in Rule 6.3A.1 after “member” the words “or members” be inserted;
(b) Rule 6.3A.2 be suspended;
(c) in Rule 6.3A.4 the first sentence be suspended;
(d) after Rule 6.3A.5(d) be inserted “(e) a political party withdraws in writing to the Bureau that nomination of the member or members nominated for the purposes of committee meetings up to 1 July 2022.”; and
(e) in Rule 12.1.15 the words “(other than a committee substitute)” be omitted in both instances where they occur.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
General Question Time
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Alison Johnstone
Briefly, minister.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Scotland’s Vision for Trade (Annual Report)
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Alison Johnstone
The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions, after which we will move on to the next item of business. I would be grateful if members who wish to ask a question would press their request-to-speak buttons now.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Parliamentary Bureau Motions
Meeting date: 31 March 2022
Alison Johnstone
The question on the motion will be put at decision time.
The next item of business is consideration of four more Parliamentary Bureau motions. I ask George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, to move motions S6M-03862 and S6M-03903, on committee membership, S6M-03863, on substitution on committees, and S6M-03905, on suspension and variation of standing orders.
Motions moved,
That the Parliament agrees that—
Graeme Dey be appointed to replace James Dornan as a member of the Education, Children and Young People Committee;
Ruth Maguire be appointed to replace Fergus Ewing as a member of the Education, Children and Young People Committee;
Marie McNair be appointed to replace Graeme Dey as a member of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee;
Paul McLennan be appointed to replace Marie McNair as a member of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee;
Fergus Ewing be appointed to replace Ruth Maguire as a member of the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee.
That the Parliament agrees that Annie Wells be appointed to replace Meghan Gallacher as a member of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.
That the Parliament agrees that—
Graeme Dey be appointed to replace Fergus Ewing as the Scottish National Party substitute on the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee;
Ruth Maguire be appointed to replace Emma Roddick as the Scottish National Party substitute on the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee;
Stuart McMillan be appointed to replace James Dornan as the Scottish National Party substitute on the COVID-19 Recovery Committee;
Fergus Ewing be appointed to replace Alasdair Allan as the Scottish National Party substitute on the Finance and Public Administration Committee.
That the Parliament agrees that, with effect from 1 April 2022, for the purposes of committee meetings up to 1 July 2022—
(a) in Rule 6.3A.1 after “member” the words “or members” be inserted;
(b) Rule 6.3A.2 be suspended;
(c) in Rule 6.3A.4 the first sentence be suspended;
(d) after Rule 6.3A.5(d) be inserted “(e) a political party withdraws in writing to the Bureau that nomination of the member or members nominated for the purposes of committee meetings up to 1 July 2022.”; and
(e) in Rule 12.1.15 the words “(other than a committee substitute)” be omitted in both instances where they occur.—[George Adam]
