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 1441 contributions
|
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Miles Briggs
At UK level, £40 million has been committed to delivering that in England and Wales. I am not sure that the Barnett consequentials of that have necessarily come through to the individuals who would do that work in Scotland. Do we have enough professionals to do that work?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Miles Briggs
Thanks. I have a couple of other questions that I may come back to later.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Miles Briggs
One case has progressed to the point where remedial work has taken place. In theory, that case is a pilot for the 105 other properties that are affected. It is important for householders to see a potential end to the problem. Is there anything in the completed project that has shown that it can be used as a Scottish example to demonstrate that work can be progressed so that all those properties can be surveyed and then delivered?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Miles Briggs
Good morning, and thank you for joining us.
I have a couple of questions. First, how would you rate the progress that has been made to date in Scotland on the Government’s single building assessment programme? I would like your views on some of the pitfalls that we have seen and why there has not been a four-nations approach to the issue, which is one of the key things that I am concerned about.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Miles Briggs
That is helpful. In the detail of the single building assessment, is there a differentiation between what happens in Scotland and in England, and what that might mean? In Scotland, now, we talk about high and low risk. In England, they talk about high, medium and low risk. Everything in Scotland that has any potential risk is classified as high risk.
I am concerned that we are not on the front foot on that work in the first place, and that it could also present another issue for getting the work done: meeting the cost of doing it. Do you have anything to say on that?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Miles Briggs
I take it that no witness has, locally. What could be done to speed up the delivery of the assessment programme? Measures that were suggested include the establishment of a dynamic purchasing framework to improve timescales. Is there anything else?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Miles Briggs
In England and Wales, they are specifically included but, in Scotland, they are still permitted to have the cladding on them.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Miles Briggs
I know that a lot of this is technical, in particular when we are asking about the two systems.
Finally, what data, if any, do you have on what are often referred to as potential “orphan buildings” in Scotland? What exposure do SMEs have to that issue, which could present a significant cost for those companies that they might not be able to meet in the future? Are you aware of any data on that?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Miles Briggs
In my time as an MSP, one issue has been about what street furniture starts to look like, especially during the festival, with A-boards and things like that. My concern is whether the order relaxes the approach in many businesses’ views and how things will change. People want assurance about how that will be enforced by the council at what could be an incredibly busy time.
My other question is about the electric vehicle charging infrastructure. What consultation has taken place on that with stakeholders, specifically the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the stakeholder groups on cladding?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Miles Briggs
I am specifically concerned about wall-mounted charging and what that now presents. If I live in a block of flats and have an electric car, can I attach a charger to that building without there having been proper pre-planning?
