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 2490 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Benefits Independent Advocacy
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Miles Briggs
Yes—that is important.
Finally, with expansion plans and in the current market, are you finding it difficult to recruit advocates who have the necessary experience? What sort of training have you developed?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Benefits Independent Advocacy
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Miles Briggs
Either the client or the advocate who is going to visit a client.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Benefits Independent Advocacy
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Miles Briggs
As part of data collection, will you also be looking at waiting times for advocates and cancellations?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Benefits Independent Advocacy
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Miles Briggs
We know that the number of complaints to Social Security Scotland has risen by more than 400 per cent. Are you already getting feedback on why that is?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Benefits Independent Advocacy
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Miles Briggs
Will the speak out forums that you are planning to develop be included in capturing why people are making complaints and whether they are about the system or outcomes?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Benefits Independent Advocacy
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Miles Briggs
That is helpful. Thank you. Are travel costs also covered?
Meeting of the Parliament
National Drugs Mission
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Miles Briggs
I absolutely recognise that and, from speaking to people in services, I know that it destabilises them to this very day. Also, where services need to be redesigned, that work is still not taking place.
On the funding that has been delivered—this is something that the Audit Scotland report specifically points towards—we are not seeing the money trickle down to services and it is hard to follow the money, specifically with regard to the—
Meeting of the Parliament
National Drugs Mission
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Miles Briggs
I hope that the member has had time to read FAVOR’s report. It is an excellent report, and I congratulate FAVOR on it. It asks for a clear definition of residential rehabilitation to be introduced, and for the introduction of a centralised referral pathway and funding system. Is the minister considering that recommendation?
Meeting of the Parliament
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Question Time
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Miles Briggs
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what discussions have taken place to consider providing cross-party groups with access to broadcasting services in committee rooms. (S6O-01605)
Criminal Justice Committee, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, Social Justice and Social Security Committee: Joint Committee
Reducing Drug Deaths in Scotland and Tackling Problem Drug Use
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Miles Briggs
Good morning. In what we are examining, a gap exists in relation to housing and homelessness. I have raised that issue with the minister a few times, but it is still not being addressed. Frankly, the Government is also not talking about the housing crisis.
This week’s statistics show that, of the deaths of 222 homeless people, half were drug deaths. Ministers seem to have taken their eyes off the ball in that area, but we need action and supported housing models to be put in place. What is the Government doing about that?
