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 2176 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Cost of Living: Mortgage Rescue Scheme
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Miles Briggs
It is quite clear whom the cabinet secretary does not want to help: it is the people she sees as the super-rich—people like nurses, police officers and teachers in our country. They want support.
Meeting of the Parliament
Cost of Living: Mortgage Rescue Scheme
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Miles Briggs
I do not have time. I have only four minutes.
We need the Government to look at the situation. It used to support helping Scots to get on to the property ladder, but it has changed its mind and turned its back on the very people it used to support.
Scottish Conservatives want home ownership to be affordable for every Scot. That is why we are proposing a rent-to-own scheme, which will help people to save for a deposit by giving them a percentage of their rent back when they decide and are ready to purchase their own home.
It is clear that more and more potential first-time buyers in Scotland are being priced out of the market, especially in the capital. Scottish first-time buyers must be at the heart of a Scottish Government housing strategy. It is sad that the Scottish Government seems to have forgotten about them.
That is why my amendment for today’s debate calls on the Scottish ministers to reinstate help to buy and to develop a new rent-to-own scheme. We need a bold new initiative to help people to get on to the property ladder in Scotland. Rent to own can do just that.
A generation of potential first-time buyers are at risk of being completely left behind by this SNP-Green Government. That is not acceptable.
It is also clear that we are starting to see the unintended consequences of the SNP-Green-Labour Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Scotland Act 2022, as they filter through into the social rented sector. Members who meet the sector are seeing how it is redrawing financial plans, scrapping business plans for new socially rented homes. Ultimately, fewer homes will be available. That will be the legacy of this SNP-Green Government.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Planning Framework 4
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Miles Briggs
Good morning. I thank the witnesses for joining us. I have some specific questions about land supply. Will NPF4, as it stands, bring forward the future development sites that we need to meet our housing to 2040 target?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Planning Framework 4
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Miles Briggs
My questions follow on from Paul McLennan’s. It is quite clear from what we have heard that the devil is going to be in the detail, with regards to the guidance, especially transitional guidance.
What are your views on NPF4 and transitioning the planning system between how it stands now and how it potentially will stand, in relation to current planning applications in the system? What will that look like with regards to the housing crisis? It is a missed opportunity not to have that in NPF4. What could be lost in translation between now and NPF4 coming in?
11:30Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Planning Framework 4
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Miles Briggs
In England, the strategic housing land availability assessment is used to look at the availability of land for housing over 15 years. I do not see what that looks like in NPF4. In my area, in Edinburgh, it is based on brownfield sites, 90 per cent of which have businesses currently on them, and those businesses have no idea where they will be moved to. Would it have been useful to have a longer-term vision—covering 15 years at least—relating to where homes might be built?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Planning Framework 4
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Miles Briggs
Thank you.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Planning Framework 4
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Miles Briggs
I will try to cut my questions down to just two, convener.
It is clear that the witnesses’ opinion is that the climate and nature crises have been captured in NPF4. Should the housing crisis also be very much in the plan?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Planning Framework 4
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Miles Briggs
That is helpful. I would like to go into lots of detail about data sets, but we probably do not have time to do that today. It would be helpful to get your opinion after the meeting on where that currently is in relation to NPF4.
My final question returns to the issue of gender, which Professor Hague raised earlier. Many of the comments that the committee has received point towards what is often a male-dominated industry and the fact that decisions do not necessarily take into account other views, especially with regard to issues such as street layout and lighting. That has been raised with us on several occasions. Will the policies in the revised NPF4 deliver a built environment that meets the needs of women, children and disabled people?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Planning Framework 4
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Miles Briggs
Both witnesses have mentioned that they expect additional information to be provided in guidance. I have said that we need a review mechanism within NPF4 to ensure that land is forthcoming. Is such a mechanism available? You have pointed towards what our committee could look at, but should the guidance include that?
09:45Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
National Planning Framework 4
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Miles Briggs
I might sound like a broken record on this, but as an Edinburgh MSP, I am concerned about the emphasis just on brownfield development, which is unlikely to be forthcoming here in the capital. There are very viable businesses currently on such sites and they have had no communication or real conversation on what the future looks like for them with NPF4.
What issues still need to be addressed around that pipeline of land in order to meet all the commitments that are in NPF4, especially in the context of the housing crisis?
