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 2298 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Miles Briggs
We are talking about people living in the coldest communities in Scotland. Maybe there could have been more flexibility to take that into account now rather than in future years. The Scottish Government told SCOSS that it might take a few weeks in February to process the payments. Will the eligible recipients receive their payments before the end of February? Is that now guaranteed?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Miles Briggs
Just before I hand back to you, convener, I suggest that it might be important for the minister, once he leaves this meeting, to write to the communities, specifically with that information. People might not be aware of what is going on, so it would be useful, especially in the four postcode areas that we are talking about, to make sure that households are aware.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Miles Briggs
I will pick up on the point that James Dornan has just made. The Government said that there would not be losers, but there clearly will be. As has been reflected in our discussions on the issue, I am concerned that the new scheme will leave behind many parts of rural Scotland that benefit from the current system because of the extra cold weather that they experience, and it will make them financially worse off. That is not a system that should have been developed, and it could have been corrected before now. I am concerned about what that means for some low-income families living in communities such as Braemar, Aviemore and across rural Scotland, especially given the recent weather. That is a problem that should have been fixed.
Minister, I think that the committee has expressed frustration today that we are putting in place a system that moves us towards a universal payment system for people—I accept that—but that does not take into account the previous targeted support that was based on the coldest weather that communities across Scotland often experience. That is not acceptable. I hope that the minister takes on board the debate that we have had this morning on the changes, so that support will be provided and people will be made aware of the additional support—many will not know where and how to apply for it. I hope that the Government commits to coming back as soon as possible to try to fix it and put in place a better system, because all of us on the committee hoped for and wanted a better system to be put in place, and it does not feel as though this has lived up to that expectation. Like Jeremy Balfour, I will not vote against the regulations, but I will abstain, because I do not think that we should approve the system as it stands.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Miles Briggs
The member represents a very rural part of Scotland. Payments have not necessarily been triggered there to the same extent as they have in communities in the north. Does he want his communities to lose out, in a way? We have no Aberdeenshire members, for example, on the committee. We were led to believe that no one would lose out, but this will result in communities losing out. Why has the Government not taken that on board?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Miles Briggs
Well, under the old system, the communities that are facing those temperatures now would have received payments within two weeks. They will now receive one payment of £50 in February. It is quite clear that, with the data scan, they would be in a better place under the DWP’s current system, because they would get that payment today. The question that I wanted to ask was—
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Miles Briggs
Good morning, minister and officials. I have to say that the issue that the convener has just raised is deeply concerning, because there seems to be no flexibility. From what we have heard, Scots living in some of the coldest communities in Scotland will lose out. Braemar recorded -15°C this week; today, as we speak, it is -2°C. Minister, do you accept that those rural communities are going to lose out and that the payments will not be in their bank account potentially until February? The DWP can pay within 14 days, which means that the money can be put out now, so why is there not the same flexibility here?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Miles Briggs
Perhaps you can liaise with the councils, then.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Miles Briggs
There are growing concerns about the financial resilience of hospices across Scotland. The sector faces significant pressures with regard to staffing and energy costs. I met hospice staff in my region who report that they are already supporting the delivery of core services from their reserves. One of the impacts of the pandemic is that more people need to move to palliative care. Will the First Minister agree to convene urgent talks with the sector and undertake a review of matched funding for the hospice care sector, which has now fallen to one of the lowest levels that we have ever seen?
Meeting of the Parliament
Budget 2023-24
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Miles Briggs
The Deputy First Minister mentioned the Bute house agreement, which states that the SNP-Green Government will deliver 110,000 affordable homes. Today’s budget cuts the housing budget by £215 million in real terms, which comes on the back of last year’s cut to the housing budget. That decision will undermine jobs in the construction sector. The SNP Government is now driving a housing crisis in Scotland. Why has the Government today ripped up its housing policies, and what is it going to do to make sure that affordable homes are actually delivered?
Meeting of the Parliament
Asset Transfers and Community Empowerment
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Miles Briggs
I agree, but I also think that councils’ budgets do not allow them to do much else apart from look towards the health and safety concerns that affect such buildings, which is their duty at the end of the day.
