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 1064 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 25 September 2024
David Torrance
In light of the evidence and the collaboration between Glasgow City Council and the taxi trade, the committee should close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government outlined a number of funding options available to support drivers in the taxi trade; that grace periods where the LEZ restrictions are in place but penalties are not applied have been implemented in Glasgow and could be applied by other local authorities if they wish to do so; that Glasgow City Council has developed a mechanism for eligible taxi operators to receive a temporary exemption to the LEZ in order to provide more time to comply; and that Transport Scotland has been engaging with Unite the union to discuss issues pertaining to the taxi trade, particularly in relation to the LEZ.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 25 September 2024
David Torrance
I agree.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 25 September 2024
David Torrance
I wonder whether the committee would consider writing to the Scottish Government to ask for its views on the petitioner’s request to abolish absolute discharge in cases of rape or sexual assault and to introduce a statutory minimum sentence for those offences.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 25 September 2024
David Torrance
Yes. I also wonder whether the committee would consider writing to Victim Support Scotland and Rape Crisis seeking their views on the action called for in the petition. As Mr MacGregor has already highlighted, I would like to inform the petitioner about the Scottish Sentencing Council’s consultation on the draft sentencing guidelines on rape—although I have no doubt that the petitioner is already engaged with that process.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 25 September 2024
David Torrance
As a member of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, I can confirm that we are already looking into and reviewing gender identity services for children and young people. I wonder whether the committee would consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee is currently taking evidence on the independent review of gender identity services for children and young people, including hearing evidence from the chief medical officer at the end of October.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 25 September 2024
David Torrance
I bow to Mr Golden’s suggestion but, in that case, I wonder whether we could also write to the teaching unions to get their views on the matter. It is their members who will be engaging with it.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 25 September 2024
David Torrance
Considering that the Scottish Government has recently published new guidelines setting out what schools may wish to consider when developing policy on mobile phone usage and engaging with parents, carers and the wider school community, and the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills has stated that the Scottish Government cannot unilaterally ban mobile phones in schools as that is a policy decision resting with headteachers and local authorities, I wonder whether the committee would consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 25 September 2024
David Torrance
Given the Scottish Government’s response, it is, as you said, pretty clear that it does not intend to legislate in this area. Therefore, will the committee consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government has no intention of legislating to include the sustainable cultural use of natural resources under section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and because NatureScot provides detailed licensing guidance that includes specific guidance on the interpretation of the “no other satisfactory solution” test and which takes into consideration European Court of Justice case law?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 25 September 2024
David Torrance
Considering the evidence that the committee has received, I think that we should consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that Food Standards Scotland intends to build further evidence on and knowledge of the practicalities and costs before developing potential options for Braille food labelling. As part of that work, it will discuss issues on a UK basis through the common framework for food composition, standards and labelling.
In closing the petition, we could highlight to the petitioner that they can bring back a petition in a year’s time if they are not happy with the results. Given that there is a UK-wide approach to food labelling, the petitioner might wish to consider raising the issue through the UK Parliament’s petition system.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 25 September 2024
David Torrance
Considering the Government’s response and the commitment to a Promise bill before the end of the parliamentary session, I wonder whether the committee could close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government is currently consulting on the change required to ensure that young people leaving care and moving into adulthood have the right scaffolding support available to meet their needs; and that it has committed to introducing a Promise bill before the end of the current parliamentary session. In closing the petition, the committee could highlight to the petitioner that, if that is not achieved by the end of the parliamentary session, they can bring a new petition in the next parliamentary session.
