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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Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Miles Briggs
I agree with the concerns that Willie Rennie has expressed. This year, we have already seen the unlawful practice of sending elderly patients to locked Scottish care homes and units being banned. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, specifically, was taken to court for that by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Further to the data on that being uncovered, will the Scottish Government agree to an independent review of all the vulnerable individuals who are living in such facilities?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Covid-19
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Miles Briggs
Throughout the pandemic, I have raised with the First Minister the issue of hospital parking for NHS staff. I welcome some of the steps that the Government has taken, but, from the start of this week, NHS staff in Edinburgh are having their parking rights removed at Edinburgh royal infirmary. More than 20,000 people have signed a petition that calls for a rethink. Does the First Minster agree that front-line NHS staff who work night shifts should always be given the option of a parking space? Will she agree to a national review of hospital parking for NHS staff?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Retrofitting Buildings for Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Miles Briggs
Will the member take an intervention?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Miles Briggs
We know that, during the pandemic, a significant number of fellow Scots have become carers and taken on a carer role. In many cases, it has been women who have taken on those roles. How does the budget as a whole allow women in Scotland to realise their potential and get back into employment if that is what they want? How does it support carers who, in many cases, are now taking on caring roles that local authorities previously supported but which were cut during the pandemic?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Miles Briggs
I have a specific question about the impact of likely council tax increases. In a number of evidence sessions, the committee has heard that council tax is often one of the driving forces that pushes people into poverty, as they are not able to pay those bills. The year before the pandemic, council tax debt increased by 25 per cent to more than £95 million.
Cabinet secretary, you have outlined some of the support that is available, but what is your personal opinion on the impact that a potential increase in council tax will have, given what we are seeing in relation to energy prices? What additional support can be given to councils in order to keep council tax increases as low as possible?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Miles Briggs
Previously, the Scottish Government introduced a council tax freeze and provided local authorities with the resources to meet that. All local authority leaders have expressed concern that they now face £371 million of cuts and that that will lead to council tax increases. Given all the pressures on household budgets, why have the resources not been provided to meet a freeze this year?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Miles Briggs
I think that your response represents a commitment to at least match previous funding commitments, but it is important that we see more transparency and better monitoring of how that money is spent.
I move on to a question that I asked you in a previous evidence session with regard to the tackling homelessness budget. In your letter to the committee of 1 October, you said that the £16 million was still to be allocated for the coming financial year. We have three or four months of the current financial year left. I wonder how that money has been allocated.
10:15Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Miles Briggs
That would be helpful. I take it that the money will be allocated before the end of the financial year, given that we are almost there. In political terms, with four months to go, it is important that the finance is not rolled over and lost when organisations desperately want to access it and make a difference.
My other question is on advice services. The cabinet secretary was at the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on Tuesday, when we discussed the local government settlement. Martin Booth, the director of finance at Glasgow City Council, expressed severe concerns about where councils might need to make cuts, and one of his concerns was about advice services. In this committee, we have taken a lot of evidence on the importance of advice services being protected and supplied to some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Given the concerns that councils are expressing about cuts, how will advice services be protected?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Miles Briggs
I have some questions about homelessness, which you touched on in your opening statement. I think that rapid rehousing transition plans are the right approach, but significant resource will be required to implement them properly, especially here in my city of Edinburgh. What funding will be attached to rapid rehousing transition plans? Will you match previous commitments on them?
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Miles Briggs
I thank the people across Scotland who put in a power of work to ensure that the Holyrood election could go ahead safely, and I acknowledge the cross-party work of Graeme Dey to make sure that we were able to have the election. We should not undermine the work that went into that election.
I ask about two key points. Will emergency proxy votes still be in place for the council elections, in case people still have to self-isolate? Will the Scottish Government review the provision of a Royal Mail delivery for each council candidate who stands in the election?
