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 1138 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 22 November 2023
David Torrance
Considering the Scottish Government’s view and the evidence that is before the committee, we have no other option except to close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government does not consider that malicious false allegations should in themselves be considered as a hate crime. Behaviour amounting to false allegations can be dealt with under existing common law, with hate crime legislation enabling a statutory aggravation to be added when a false allegation is motivated by characteristics that are listed in the hate crime legislation. The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 covers the protected characteristics of age, disability, race, colour, nationality or ethnic and national origins, religion or perceived religious affiliation, sexual orientation and transgender identity. It also includes the power to add variations in sex characteristics to that list.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 November 2023
David Torrance
Good morning. You have answered most of my questions on the reasons why young people get involved in violence. Do the same reasons apply when it comes to young people getting involved in minor criminal offences or antisocial behaviour? Are the causes the same?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 November 2023
David Torrance
We could write to BT Openreach to ask whether, in light of information that work is sequenced from the primary exchange location out to communities, it considers areas with low speeds in the surrounding communities when determining which primary exchange locations to prioritise. Our papers contain a list of other questions, so we could just add them, convener.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 November 2023
David Torrance
I agree, convener. In the light of the evidence that we have been given, I would like to close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government’s consultation on early learning and childcare found that responses favoured alternative approaches and highlighted potential drawbacks to using an online account. In addition, the Scottish Childminding Association raised concerns about problems arising from an online account system and suggested that it would not resolve existing issues with funding for early learning and childcare.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 November 2023
David Torrance
We could keep the petition open and write to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance to seek clarity on whether the Barnett consequentials resulting from the UK Government’s announcement of additional funding for pothole repairs will be made available for pothole repair in Scotland as part of the 2024-25 budget allocation for motorways and trunk roads and the local government settlement.
We could also write to the Minister for Transport to seek information on what action is being taken to ensure that the budget for motorways and trunk roads is not further reduced as part of the 2024-25 budget.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 November 2023
David Torrance
I have a whole list that I would like to go through, if we have time.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 November 2023
David Torrance
I wonder whether the committee would consider writing to the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ask what consideration it has given to the introduction of mandatory Braille labelling on food products across the UK, and to seek clarification on whether the UK Government will carry out a full review of general food labelling requirements.
I also wonder whether the committee would consider seeking an update from Food Standards Scotland on its work to build an evidence base in the area and on the recommendation that it launches a public consultation to gather views on Braille labelling on food.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 22 November 2023
David Torrance
Mr Ewing mentioned car parks that have no facilities, but we just need to look at Loch Morlich—he will know the area well. There are lots of car parks there, but they are seriously overused by the public. It is a really good tourist destination, and the wear and tear in those areas is incredible. Forestry and Land Scotland has to repair that, so it needs to get revenue from somewhere.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 22 November 2023
David Torrance
The evidence that the committee has received and what Meghan Gallacher has said has highlighted the issues that have been raised in the petition and brought them to the forefront. However, the committee has no option but to close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders, on the basis that women under the age of 25 are not invited for routine cervical screening as evidence shows that screening would do more harm than good, in line with the guidance from the UK National Screening Committee and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 November 2023
David Torrance
I was going to suggest closing the petition, convener but, in light of what Fergus Ewing has said, I wonder whether we can pass it on to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, given that it is working on the topic anyway.
