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 2881 contributions
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Finance and Public Administration Committee
Scottish Fiscal Framework: Value Added Tax Assignment
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
John Mason
I am happy to come in on that subject, actually, because I was just going to make a comment. When VAT assignment was first announced, I thought that it would be a good thing, partly because, as David Phillips explained, there are different models. I assumed that, if we attracted a factory to Scotland, that factory would add value. The whole point of VAT is that it is a tax on added value, so attracting more factories—and we have been quite successful at inward investment—would allow us to build up VAT in that way.
However, as we heard in the briefing this morning, clearly, that is not the model that is being looked at. It is purely about the end point where consumers spend their money. Like everyone else—I agree with what Michael Marra said—I am very sceptical about this going ahead as it is. I am not quite as sceptical as Charlotte Barbour, who said that it would be horrendous to devolve VAT. Clearly, other small countries—not just sub-nations but Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark—all operate their own systems, I assume, even though they are in a single market. It should be possible to devolve it and then, as and when we become independent, we will have our own VAT system. That is not unmanageable, but I accept that, at the moment, the costs are probably outweighing the advantages.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Scottish Fiscal Framework: Independent Report and Review
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
John Mason
The second of the bullet points on the Smith commission says:
“The devolved Scottish budget should benefit in full from policy decisions by the Scottish Government”.
Is the assumption there that, if Scotland varies from the rest of the UK, that is entirely Scotland’s responsibility and it is under our control, for better or for worse?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Scottish Fiscal Framework: Independent Report and Review
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
John Mason
You are saying that, having been at 129 per cent, rightly or wrongly, we are on a decline to 120 per cent?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Scottish Fiscal Framework: Independent Report and Review
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
John Mason
Professor Spowage, as well as responding to that, could you also comment on where we are now with regard to Scotland-specific shocks?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Scottish Fiscal Framework: Independent Report and Review
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
John Mason
If there was a specific shock to particularly Scottish sectors such as tourism or food and drink, would that cause us a problem?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Kinship Care
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
John Mason
I will press you a bit further. Could a council take the children away because the grandparents’ home was overcrowded and did not have enough bedrooms?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Kinship Care
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
John Mason
But Glasgow City Council does not have any housing stock.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Kinship Care
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
John Mason
It was some time ago, but I had a case in which, I think, the grandparents lived some distance away from the parents. The preference was for the kids to go to the local school of the grandparents, because that would make things a lot easier, but that local school was full. In such cases, is it entirely up to local authorities how they prioritise places for kids? Does the Government have any thoughts on how such situations can be addressed?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
John Mason
Yes, thank you. That is useful. I am learning as we go along.
You said that, in one sense, you are reactive, but, on the other hand, you could look at almost anything that you are asked to. What would have to happen in order for your role to be changed? Would it require legislation at the Scottish level or at the Westminster level, or would legislation not be needed?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
John Mason
That is great. Thank you.
I will leave it at that, convener.
