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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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Department for Work and Pensions (Devolved Social Security)
Meeting date: 10 March 2022
Miles Briggs
We are on theme 2, but we have ventured into a lot of theme 3 as well. I want to ask about the scale of resource that the DWP has had to commit to the transfer process—can you outline what that has looked like? We know of the additional and higher cost of delivering the social security system through Social Security Scotland. We hope that that will come in line with the DWP’s current projections, but what does that resource look like currently?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Department for Work and Pensions (Devolved Social Security)
Meeting date: 10 March 2022
Miles Briggs
I think that none of us in either the UK Government or the Scottish Parliament want to see administration costs being the focus. The focus should be on getting money to the front line and to people who really need it. Is the exercise that we are seeing presenting unprecedented complexity for the DWP or is it similar in scale to previous benefit changes? Where are the increasing costs and the additional staff that the Scottish Government is now saying will be needed to administer the system coming from? What is in the system that is making this so complicated compared with other benefit changes that we have seen under the DWP?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Department for Work and Pensions (Devolved Social Security)
Meeting date: 10 March 2022
Miles Briggs
Yes.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Department for Work and Pensions (Devolved Social Security)
Meeting date: 10 March 2022
Miles Briggs
I am pleased to hear about that work. It would be useful if you could keep the committee informed about any of these programmes as they are developed as well. I think we would all appreciate advance knowledge of that.
I want to ask, lastly, about how the DWP and Social Security Scotland have functioned and worked together during this period. We know that there will be significant work involving the Scottish Government, especially in developing proposals for changing the personal independence payment and DLA.
I wonder how that relationship is being built. I know that you and the Minister for Social Security and Local Government went to university together here, and I hope that positive relationships are being built at the Government level. How are the two organisations working together to make the transition as smooth as possible?
09:15Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Question Time
Meeting date: 10 March 2022
Miles Briggs
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many members have been unable to establish a constituency or regional office. (S6O-00821)
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Question Time
Meeting date: 10 March 2022
Miles Briggs
It is my understanding that both constituency and regional members of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh and the Lothians have been the last to be able to source office spaces. That has also presented issues with regard to the need for individual members to meet the additional access and security requirements that the corporate body is now suggesting that all MSPs take into account. Will the corporate body investigate a potential Edinburgh weighting for allowances? Will it look at how we can utilise all our allowances in the way we would like to so that we can represent our constituents in the Parliament?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Miles Briggs
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help support the ending of homelessness and rough sleeping in Edinburgh. (S6O-00837)
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Miles Briggs
In the capital, 5,147 people are registered as homeless and 1,505 children are in temporary accommodation. Edinburgh faces a homelessness and housing crisis, but it is being short-changed by £9.3 million due to a bureaucratic anomaly. I have raised the matter with the cabinet secretary and various other Scottish National Party ministers, but I have still not received an answer or a solution. Will she agree to urgently meet me, representatives from across the capital and the City of Edinburgh Council leaders in order to fix the situation and give the capital the resources that we need to end homelessness?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 March 2022
Miles Briggs
I appreciate that. I will take up your offer and will write to you about that.
To go back to Graeme Dey’s point, there are significant concerns among landlords in the private rented sector. They do not feel that they have had the minister’s ear with regard to what the impact on them will be. What plans do you have to include the sector as you draw up guidance? The devil will be in the detail, and it is important that guidance is developed that goes beyond what is in place in relation to the public health emergency legislation that the Parliament passed. The sector should be able to influence that. You gave Mr Dey a commitment that you would listen to the sector, but I would like an assurance that its suggestions will be taken on board in the guidance.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 March 2022
Miles Briggs
Good morning, minister and officials. I want to go back to where we started and the rationale for the measures in the bill. In a number of your answers, you have described different workstreams that are out to consultation or on which consultation will be launched next year. Analysis of the consultation on the bill shows that a majority of responders were opposed to the proposals. Why has the Government decided to introduce the proposals now when, next year, there could be an opportunity to look at the issues and potentially widen out the approach to include more housing matters? It seems to be a bit of a dog’s breakfast to introduce all these different measures at this stage, when there will be an opportunity to do it next year.
11:30