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 2871 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Douglas Ross
You have asked other witnesses a question about veterans, Mr Brown. Given that the minister for veterans is here, do you want to ask it?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Douglas Ross
That is good. Thank you.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Douglas Ross
I will make this as a personal point, as I do not speak on behalf of the committee, but I am a bit disappointed that you have come here today, unable to answer what I think are basic questions. This is quite a short inquiry—yours is only the fourth panel of witnesses—and this theme has run through all of the evidence that we have received so far. Therefore, I was a bit more hopeful that we would have some solid answers. I was not expecting a commitment, because I understand that Governments have to make choices, but I am disappointed that you cannot tell us today if this measure will require legislation and that you have said that you have not even looked at the costs. I just want to put on record the fact that I find that disappointing.
Before I move to other members, I want to ask you about Professor McKendrick’s first report as commissioner for fair access, which he submitted in January of last year. It took the Government until September to respond to it. Why did it take so long? Further, the commissioner plans to produce his second annual report by March, so when can we expect the Government’s response to that?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Douglas Ross
That is what he told us on the record last week.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Douglas Ross
So, no one could have been in any doubt that, when other members were being encouraged to vote for the budget for £15 million for the University of Dundee, the announcement did not actually guarantee £15 million for the university.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Douglas Ross
I am sorry to press—I know that a couple of members want to come in—but is the thinking that we will know this by the end of the month? Is it a matter of weeks, or could we be some time down the line before we know how that funding is going to be allocated?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Douglas Ross
Thank you. I call Ross Greer.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Douglas Ross
He said that there were issues around data sharing that required further clarification. When you suggested that one of the reasons was to do with purdah, I saw the same look on the faces of your officials that was on my face, because the report was published in January, and the election was in July.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 26 February 2025
Douglas Ross
In answering the point that was raised by John Mason, you mentioned adult returners. Is there a metric that you can use to capture them? As you said, they will not be captured by measures such as free school meals and the Scottish child payment. Is it possible to capture them?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Widening Access to Higher Education
Meeting date: 26 February 2025
Douglas Ross
I have just a few final questions, Professor McKendrick. First, what is your view on including other characteristics within a basket of measures to analyse the progress that is being made? I am thinking of things that are perhaps not considered currently, such as disability status and such like. Would you widen the range of issues that you would look at in that way in order to consider progress?
