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 3123 contributions
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Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2023”
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Richard Leonard
You are not negotiating.
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2023”
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Richard Leonard
Thank you very much indeed.
I draw this evidence session to a close. I reflect on the fact that the closing paragraphs of the Auditor General’s state bluntly:
“Addressing the challenges facing the college sector cannot be avoided or postponed.”
I think that the evidence we have taken today certainly shows that everyone around this table is clear that that is an absolute truism. As I said at the start, when we get to January, we will have the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council before us. That paragraph of the report goes on to make clear that the responsibility lies at their door, so we will do our level best to try to get some answers from them.
I thank you for your evidence, which has been very lucid and forthright and is valuable to us as a Public Audit Committee. Good luck to those who are involved in negotiations this afternoon. You may be travelling in hope, rather than expectation, but hope is a valuable commodity. I thank Ellie Gomersall, Derek Smeall, John Mooney, Andy Witty and Stuart Brown for their time and for the insights that they have given us, and I now move the committee into private session.
10:54 Meeting continued in private until 11:23.Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2023”
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Richard Leonard
The second item on our agenda is further consideration of the Auditor General for Scotland’s briefing note, “Scotland’s colleges 2023”. I welcome everyone to the meeting. We are taking evidence in a round-table format, which is intended to promote a freer flow of discussion and, maybe, a less confrontational style of evidence taking. As it is a round table, I invite our witnesses to introduce themselves.
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2023”
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Richard Leonard
Stuart Brown wants to come in on this question, too.
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2023”
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Richard Leonard
We will take evidence in the new year from the Scottish Funding Council, but I note that, in an evidence-taking session with him, the Auditor General told us that, in 2020-21, three colleges out of 24 were in deficit, and that that rose to nine in 2021-22. I am not saying that there will be a linear progression but, if we extrapolate that rate of deficit growth, that would mean that every college in Scotland would be operating in deficit in the next financial year.
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2023”
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Richard Leonard
But, you are here, as a representative of the college principals group, so it is important that you are telling us that.
I will ask Stuart Brown about the reduction in the workforce. One of the points that the Auditor General makes in his report is that, although, on the whole, the public sector workforce has grown, the workforce in the further education sector has contracted. Do you want to comment on that or any of the other points that Derek Smeall introduced?
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2023”
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Richard Leonard
Thank you—that is clear. Andy Witty, can I ask you to broaden things out? The report identifies other risks that the college sector is up against. Could you elaborate on them and give us your view on them? Are there other risks that are not included in the Auditor General’s assessment?
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2023”
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Richard Leonard
Okay—thank you. I know that Stuart Brown wants to come back in—you will have another opportunity, Stuart, before we finish up—but I am keen for Willie Coffey to lead the next part of the conversation.
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2023”
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Richard Leonard
John Mooney wants to come in on that point, and then we will move back to revenue, which Graham Simpson will lead on.
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2023”
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Richard Leonard
Okay. As Stuart Brown called out Andy Witty’s organisation, I think that we need to give him the right to reply before we move on.
