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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 1324 contributions
|
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Miles Briggs
That would be very helpful.
On the issue of children missing out, how many should be receiving free school meals under the Government’s manifesto commitment but will not be by the end of this parliamentary session?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Miles Briggs
Both.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Miles Briggs
That is helpful, thank you.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Miles Briggs
Good morning. I have a related question about the trends that you have identified in relation to barriers and gaps in knowledge in Scottish public services, specifically ones that affect the realisation of children’s rights and outcomes. I will put two issues on the table: first, violence in schools, and, secondly, mainstreaming and the failure to meet children’s needs. What have you gathered from your work on that so far and from the work that you intend to do?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Miles Briggs
That is helpful.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Miles Briggs
I was at that event, as were other MSPs. A record number of children—upwards of 10,360—are now in temporary accommodation in Scotland. Thirty-five per cent of those—more than 3,600—are in the City of Edinburgh Council area. The negative educational impacts are clear, but we have not seen policy in that area—for example, on children moving between schools. Has there been any engagement between you and the Government on the clear recommendation that that should not be happening?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Miles Briggs
Is it right that the figures that were presented to Parliament in the budget were inflation proofed in order to deliver on the commitments that they support? I think that the Liberal Democrats and the Greens supported that.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Miles Briggs
The issue is not new—it has been raised with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, and other committees have raised it, too. The Government has been very slow to make progress on the issue. Am I right in saying that there are 90,000 children who are entitled to free school meals, but there are 25,000 young people who are not receiving free school meals who should be, or is that the number of children who will receive free school meals?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Miles Briggs
Thank you for that clarification.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Miles Briggs
Willie Rennie pursued some of the questions that I had about the University of Dundee, cabinet secretary. However, because we have you here, I have to ask, as an Edinburgh MSP, about the University of Edinburgh. I have received hundreds of emails from concerned students and staff there because it is proposing to make £140 million in cuts. What engagement and communications have you and other ministers had with the University of Edinburgh specifically to look at the similar pattern that is now unfolding for members of staff at that university?
