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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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Local Government Elections (Candidacy Rights of Foreign Nationals) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Edward Mountain
I do not have a question on the procedure, but can I ask a question of the minister?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Local Government Elections (Candidacy Rights of Foreign Nationals) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Edward Mountain
When we took evidence from the minister at stage 1, he said that he would lodge an appropriate amendment at stage 2, which he has not done. I would like to understand his rationale for not doing what he said he was going to do. I am sure that there is a perfectly good reason, but I would like him to explain it to us.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Local Government Elections (Candidacy Rights of Foreign Nationals) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Edward Mountain
I am content for that to be on the record and that no argument was required.
Sections 1 to 4 agreed to.
Long title agreed to.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Cross-Party Group
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Edward Mountain
Colin, you mentioned working across other cross-party groups. Do you foresee that as being by correspondence only or do you foresee having joint meetings on certain areas so that people can share and build on the experiences that they bring to those meetings?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Islands (Scotland) Act 2018: Islands Plan Annual Report
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Edward Mountain
We know from when we went to Shetland—it was possibly Orkney—that the mental health professionals are supposed to travel up on a Tuesday, but that does not always happen and sometimes there are delays of two or three weeks. That is a serious issue. I am not aware of the health boards having carried out impact assessments of the failure to provide healthcare. It would be helpful to have that information.
My next question is a little more parochial. Raasay, for example, relies on the good will of CalMac Ferries to deliver parcels: they are dropped off at the terminal when the ferry comes over. CalMac is stopping that service because it says that it costs £250,000 a year to run. I am not sure where that figure came from—a man or lady in a white van would not cost £250,000 to run such a service. Getting Amazon parcels or shopping delivered to Raasay is a real problem, although that happens on other islands. CalMac has been very iffy about the issue. I have looked at the CalMac impact assessment and it realises my greatest fear: it is a tick-box exercise that cannot be justified. Are you convinced more generally that island impact assessments for changes in services are being done properly? If you are unable to give an answer now, could you look at a few assessments and respond to the committee to confirm whether they are being done properly? I fear that they are not.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Islands (Scotland) Act 2018: Islands Plan Annual Report
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Edward Mountain
I remember the Islands (Scotland) Bill coming through the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee at stages 1 and 2 and through Parliament at stage 3. One of the questions that was raised was whether island impact assessments would be worth while and carried out properly or whether those would simply be a tick-box exercise.
Professor Sindico said that there are multifaceted reasons for population decline, but I suggest that connectivity, health, education and quality of life keep people in the islands. Let us start with health. Mental health issues can be a real problem in rural areas. Islands do not necessarily have mental health experts so they have to be brought in and they do not always make it because the ferries are not available or there is bad weather. How many island impact assessments have been carried out in relation to changes in health provision on the islands in the past year?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Islands (Scotland) Act 2018: Islands Plan Annual Report
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Edward Mountain
Thank you. I believe that those impact assessments would demonstrate that they are becoming tick-box exercises. I believe that it is a failure of the legislation to ensure that they are being done properly. In the future, I would like the annual report to include confirmation from the cabinet secretary that island impact assessments are being carried out and implemented in the spirit of the legislation that introduced them.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Edward Mountain
I turn now to Lord Gardiner. I should explain that our committee system in the Scottish Parliament is slightly different. It is, in effect, our second chamber for scrutinising legislation, and committees can take evidence very effectively.
Do you think that committees are in a position to scrutinise legislation line by line if they are doing it remotely and the members are not around a table, facing questions? If you had 200 amendments to one bill, as I had, could they be considered remotely, or would that be impossible?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Edward Mountain
I will try to keep this short, because a lot of my questions have been answered. I have a question for Denis Naughten. I am delighted to know that parliamentary privilege exists for your Parliament, Denis. It does not exist for the Scottish Parliament, so what we say is not subject to privilege.
Your point about politics and relationships is well made. I hark back to evidence that we heard from somebody else that you do not bump into people on WhatsApp. That is right—the ability to talk to people is important.
Have you watched other Parliaments debating in a hybrid format? If so, do you think that those debates are informative or sterile?
10:45Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Future Parliamentary Procedures and Practices Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Edward Mountain
Our broadcasting services control our cameras. If we type, “Away from keyboard”, they do not turn them on.
I am always conscious when I am in the room with our convener, because you get a glare when you overstay your welcome, and I can feel that glare boring into me now, so I will hand back to him. It would be more physically threatening if I were in the room with him rather than doing this remotely.
