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 2213 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Miles Briggs
It would be useful to update the committee on any timelines that the Government is aware of for that independent review, because we are keen to add value to the process where we can.
I want to ask about changes that I think that the DWP has announced today to the PIP application process to try to make it easier for people to start a new claim. Has the Scottish Government captured and been involved in that work? The changes relate to individuals who need assistance to make a claim. For example, a supporting person, rather than the individual making the claim, will be able to make a phone call. Will those changes be captured in any changes to the ADP system, so that we have a system that can be flexible at UK level and in Scotland? Is the minister aware of that?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Miles Briggs
Congratulations on your appointment, convener. I, too, pass on my thanks to Neil Gray. We will miss his colourful socks in committee, when we are able to meet in person again.
Good morning, minister. I have a few questions that carry on the line that Foysol Choudhury developed. What is the Scottish Government’s view on the merits of a single disability benefit that would apply to children and to working age and older people?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Miles Briggs
It is an important area, and we should develop it in some of the work that is going on.
I want to return to younger people, because it is important that the system can meet their needs. How has the system been designed to consider younger people? They may not be encouraged to apply or be aware of what benefits are available. How will the situation change compared to what has gone previously?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Miles Briggs
I have two questions, the first of which is on the back of the letter that you sent to the committee yesterday, about the recruitment of practitioners. We have previously discussed the development of hubs and where people will be located to work. Could you update the committee on that? Also, I discussed with you previously the potential to create local authority hubs where people could go to access practitioners, and how they can help people in their homes as the pandemic regulations are lifted. Where is the Government on the development of potential hubs for such practitioners?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Miles Briggs
That is helpful. Thank you very much. The last time that we discussed this, it was not necessarily clear whether the practitioners would be located in hubs, so I welcome any additional information that you can provide us with, as and when it develops.
Finally, I want to ask about the financial projections. Information that the committee has been given, specifically that from some of the work of the Scottish Fiscal Commission, suggests that in 2026, spend on ADP could rise to £567 million. The budget for this year looks to be around £38 million. We are debating stage 1 of the budget this afternoon, so are there any updated figures for the current financial projections?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Miles Briggs
I will try not to get into a debate about Scottish Government policy decisions at this late stage in the committee meeting, so I hand back to the convener.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Budget (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Miles Briggs
Can the cabinet secretary confirm to the chamber whether the £70 million that has been given to ministers in relation to the national insurance contributions compensation fund is part of that funding, or is that another announcement that we will have to hear from ministers?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Budget (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Miles Briggs
Mr Greer is not on particularly strong ground on that, because, last week, I asked him specifically about national insurance and why the Government has not handed on that money. His response was:
“there is no specific consequential for the national insurance increase.”—[Official Report, 19 January 2022; c 54.]
The cabinet secretary has announced £70 million-worth of that funding today. I welcome that, but that was a matter of the UK Government handing on £70 million, which Mr Greer said did not exist. The cabinet secretary has confirmed that it does.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Budget (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Miles Briggs
I will start—as I did last week, when I opened the debate on local government finance on behalf of the Conservatives—by thanking all those who work in our local authorities across Scotland, especially for the work that they have done during the pandemic.
I will concentrate my comments on local government funding specifically. At 3 pm today, COSLA and all local authorities across Scotland faced a cut of £371 million. As of now, following what the cabinet secretary has said, they will still face a cut of £251 million. The core local government budget, which has been frozen in cash terms, had represented a cut of around £271 million, and will now represent a cut of £151 million. Across Scotland, council leaders and councillors will be considering what services they need to cut.
Even after everything that has been said today, SNP and Green ministers are asking our councillors and councils to do more with less. In the spin from the Government, the cabinet secretary has tried to present this as a fair budget, but it is simply not fair to local government. Something has to change beyond what has been announced today.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Budget (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Miles Briggs
Will the member take an intervention?
