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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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
I have a very short final question. With regard to the 0 per cent cap, which is what is being proposed initially, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations suggested that on average the increase across your members was likely to be 3.2 per cent. In the future, when the cap is lifted by the Government, what level of increase will you expect for your members, to recoup what will be a significant hit on finances for providing day-to-day running of the organisation, repairs and future 10-year plans around affordable housing developments? I start with Aaron Hill, because I specifically mentioned your organisation.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
Given your title—which is a long title; let us be honest—net zero is one of the key projects that you have been working on and that Parliament has been discussing. Most of the social housing sector is already warning that rewriting its 10-year plans will impact on investment in net zero. Where do you think it will now be impacted? If the sector cannot bring in the income and plan that expenditure, the first casualty of the rent freeze could be that those projects to retrofit, decarbonise and work towards net zero do not take place.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
In terms of exemptions, I think that we need more clarity on what “substantial rent arrears” means in law, specifically with regard to where ministers would see that sitting. Is it three months of non-payment of rent, which I think is what I think is outlined in the bill?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
During the pandemic, many landlords reduced rents to help to sustain tenancies. Does the legislation cover the rents that were reduced, or does it cover the contracted levels of rent? For example, for people who have received a 20 per cent discount on rent, do you expect the contracted level of their rent to be covered, or the reduced level?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
I agree with that, but it also feels as though the horse might have bolted in relation to what the bill provides us with in relation to people withdrawing private rented properties in the future.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
I want to move on to the exemptions in the bill, which we have now seen. What is your view on that quite substantial set of exemptions, which include “substantial rent arrears”? What potential impact might they have? With regard to, for example, repossession of a rental property by a bank, would that result in the property being able to be sold but not allow an individual to remain in it?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
I am asking about the concerns that were expressed previously about Labour’s proposals.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
Given the concerns that you have expressed previously about the unworkability of such a bill, do you expect a legal challenge to the bill?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
What revisions will be in the bill for housing associations that are providing supported accommodation for vulnerable groups? They have additional costs that are associated with supporting residents, and those costs are often built into rent increases. Has there been a discussion with the sector about any additional costs that they will be facing?
Meeting of the Parliament
Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
From the outset of the debate and during the passage of the bill through the Parliament, I recognise that the Scottish Government’s intention is to look at how best we can support tenants during the cost of living crisis. After the unprecedented help for energy bills that is being provided by the UK Government, people across Scotland are, rightly, looking to both of Scotland’s Governments for support to assist individuals and families through a difficult period. However, the bill will do little to increase the incomes of most social housing and private tenants; instead, it will threaten the Scottish Government’s ambitions on affordable house building and climate change, as well as the ability of housing associations and private landlords to provide their tenants with the targeted support that is required during difficult times.
Members on the Conservative benches would have welcomed the opportunity to discuss workable policies with the Scottish Government; however, a 15-minute meeting with the minister after the bill was published and the use of the emergency legislation process to railroad the bill through Parliament have not presented that opportunity. Most people in the sector will find that that will have a negative impact going forward. Private and social landlords should have been brought around the table to discuss policies on, for example, rent stabilisation and the further use and development of the tenants charter. Instead, they have been left in the dark and now face an uncertain future, given the significant unintended consequences that the bill presents.
