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 2594 contributions
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COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Road to Recovery Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
John Mason
You have given me a few answers, so I could ask 20 supplementary questions. I will take the issue of training as an example, because one person who spoke to the committee told us that they felt that, as they got older, their employer was less and less willing to send them on training courses and therefore their information technology skills were not up to speed. The thought of going back to that might be difficult, especially for someone who has had a break for a couple of years during Covid. What you said about Age Scotland working with employers to do a bit more on training older workers is encouraging. Do you think that the issue is widespread?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Road to Recovery Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
John Mason
I have slipped just beyond the 50 to 64 age group.
You mentioned flexible working once or twice, but we have had a mixed picture from witnesses. We have heard some good examples. There was a young guy who had health issues who works for Tesco. He cannot handle big crowds, so his employer has got him working at night. That struck me as good, and he is really happy about that. However, we heard from an older lady who had had a break from work—I am not sure whether she was furloughed—and who, as a result of health issues, being older and perhaps having caring responsibilities, wanted to go back to work in a slightly more flexible way than she had worked previously. However, her employer—I cannot remember whether she worked in the private or the public sector; it might have been the public sector, actually—was totally inflexible. Basically, the employer said that she had to come back 9 to 5, or whatever the equivalent was. Can the Government do more on that, or is it really just up to individual employers?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Road to Recovery Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
John Mason
Yes. When you say “fair work”, the thing that jumps to mind for most people is a living wage, but it is correct to say that fair work includes quite a lot more than that, including flexibility.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Road to Recovery Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
John Mason
Another group to consider is people with fluctuating conditions that mean one day they will feel good and can work eight hours, but on another day they will not feel so good. We have had evidence that, in some sectors, it is easier for employers to be supportive. If a person is doing office work, it does not matter whether they do all of their work on Tuesday or they do all of it on Wednesday, but if they are serving in a restaurant they have to be there on certain days. Is it more difficult for some sectors to be flexible?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Road to Recovery Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
John Mason
Another group to consider is those who already have a long-term disability or who have health issues because of Covid, who are very nervous about going back to work and being with a lot of people. I guess that it could be difficult for employers to be able to adapt to that.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Road to Recovery Inquiry
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
John Mason
We have met various people over the past few weeks, and a subject that we discussed with some people with experience is early retirement. There seems to be quite a mixed picture in that regard. There are clearly some professional people with good pensions who, in their mid-50s or at 60, feel that they want a different work-life balance and take retirement. However, that means that the economy loses their experience and their energy—at least in paid employment; they may be doing other things.
Do we just accept that people in that group have gone and we cannot do anything about it, or should we be trying to bring some of them back into the labour market?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24 (United Kingdom Context)
Meeting date: 6 December 2022
John Mason
I am interested in the level of interest rates. At 4 per cent, they are felt to be high at the moment, but they are considerably lower than inflation. If that was to continue in the long term, would everybody not just borrow and make a profit? Are we in an unusual situation at the moment, or could it continue to be the case in the long term that inflation is higher than interest rates?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24 (United Kingdom Context)
Meeting date: 6 December 2022
John Mason
My understanding is that the OBR’s forecasts assume quite a big increase in fuel duty next April. The suggestion was that, if that does not go ahead, there could be a £6 billion hole in the UK Government’s finances. Can you say anything about that?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24 (United Kingdom Context)
Meeting date: 6 December 2022
John Mason
That is very helpful. Thank you.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24 (United Kingdom Context)
Meeting date: 6 December 2022
John Mason
I am still slightly puzzled, but I accept that there is not a clear-cut answer.
Liz Smith asked about the prices of gas and food and what was driving inflation. Can we compare the situation here with that in other countries? Are other countries—western countries, especially—in much the same position? Are there differences in the inflation level in neighbouring or similar countries, or in the reasons for inflation?
