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 1441 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women and Girls
Meeting date: 3 March 2022
Miles Briggs
Funding and beyond that. For example, one of the things that I have specifically been looking at is the family court model in Australia. I know that is more within the criminal justice side of what we might look at, but I just wondered what we should be looking at on this topic in terms of experiences and learning from around the world.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women and Girls
Meeting date: 3 March 2022
Miles Briggs
I totally realise that I have just put on the table a huge topic, so I would appreciate it if you could write to the committee with any further information.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women and Girls
Meeting date: 3 March 2022
Miles Briggs
I thank the witnesses for joining us this morning. I want to look across the two themes that we have been talking about today.
What are the barriers to leaving an abusive relationship in Scotland? Are there cultural barriers that we have not looked at properly? Is there more that we need to consider? I know from my work in Edinburgh supporting constituents in a couple of cases that one barrier is whether they can take their pets when those animals are also being abused. What additional services need to be put in place?
My second question—I do not know whether the witnesses want to answer it at the same time—is about funding gaps in specialist services.
I will hand that to Carolyn Fox McKay first. If anyone else wants to come in, please do.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Scottish Social Housing Charter
Meeting date: 1 March 2022
Miles Briggs
Thank you for that. I have a final question. What plans does the Scottish Government have to carry out a fundamental review of the charter in the next five years? There has been quite a gap between 2012 and 2021. What are the plans for potentially updating the charter in the future?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Scottish Social Housing Charter
Meeting date: 1 March 2022
Miles Briggs
I want to ask a few questions about some of the outcomes, starting with outcome 5, on repairs, maintenance and improvements. I am sure that every MSP meets tenants to discuss, and knows of concerns around, the timescales for works taking place. How will those be properly monitored? I am always shocked not by the work of the teams that deliver the improvements but by the length of time that people face for those improvements being made. I have a case in which people have been waiting up to five years to get a problem resolved. What difference do you hope that the charter will make?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Scottish Social Housing Charter
Meeting date: 1 March 2022
Miles Briggs
Graeme Dey responded to a question by alluding to outcome 12. I think that we all welcome the inclusion of homelessness and rough sleeping in the charter. However, an aspect that I do not think is necessarily captured is how supported or assisted living is to be provided for the many individuals who will need it. Is the Government looking at that, too? I believe that around 5 per cent to 7 per cent of homeless people need a supported living model to be put in place, but few people provide that. Rowan Alba Ltd, which is based in the capital, is doing a lot of good work around that in Leith.
I would like that aspect to be looked at, too. That important group of tenants often find themselves homeless and need that supported living model. It would be a positive thing for the charter to include that as the homelessness offering is developed further.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Kinship Care
Meeting date: 24 February 2022
Miles Briggs
We touched on the Promise when speaking to the previous panel of witnesses. Many MSPs are feeling frustrated that the Promise is not being delivered. In your professional experience, where are the problems in delivering that? From most of the submissions that we have had, it seems that local authorities are being tasked with delivering the Promise but are not being given the resources to do that.
I start with Micheleine Kane and then I will see who else wants to come in.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Kinship Care
Meeting date: 24 February 2022
Miles Briggs
Thank you. If there is information about what additional payments councils provide, that would be very helpful for the committee. Clearly, there is a postcode lottery of support across the country, so it would be helpful to see where that applies.
Since nobody else wants to answer that question, I move to my second question, which is also on kinship carers who are in informal kinship care arrangements and so are not eligible for support. Maybe this is a good question for Linda Richards. How are such individuals supported and what arrangements do you have in place in Perth and Kinross Council?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Kinship Care
Meeting date: 24 February 2022
Miles Briggs
Thank you for that. I hope that the committee hears what you have said, because I think that everyone in the Parliament is disappointed by the lack of progress that has been made. That has to change.
I do not know whether any other witness wants to come in.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Kinship Care
Meeting date: 24 February 2022
Miles Briggs
I have a question that you might want to follow up in writing. I want to ask about a new model around information and access to services for kinship carers, which goes beyond what we have been talking about in terms of payments. I think that we were all impressed with what we heard this morning about Perth and Kinross Council, given the urban and rural nature of that council area. Is there a best practice model for providing a whole package including, for example, peer support for kinship carers and access to and information about local third sector organisations? You might want to write to us about that, as I said.
In West Lothian, in my region, there are a lot of good third sector organisations that link with and help people without waiting for a referral pathway to be put in place. Are there any examples of that additional support for when people become kinship carers, or of models being developed around that?
