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 1922 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Monica Lennon
That is helpful. You have both mentioned safety. Helen Inkster, I do not want to get into this too much, but it is probably fair to say that, last summer, there was a bit of a safety scandal. You mentioned procurement and getting to know the vessel and understanding it, so could you explain what happened with the Pentalina and what lessons have been learned? I think that the issue relates back to an attempt to sell that vessel on to CMAL. I do not want to get that wrong, so I would like to hear your understanding.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Monica Lennon
Okay.
I declare that I am a member of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers parliamentary group and I am proud to be a trade unionist. I understand that the safety deficiencies were detected as a result of information that the RMT brought to the attention of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. What is your company’s culture and attitude towards trade unions? We talked about procurement, and the fair work agenda is clearly important in Scotland. What is your relationship with the RMT?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Monica Lennon
I will briefly clarify that. I asked the question because we are talking about safety and the future provision of ferry services, so issues around engagement with trade unions, the workforce and the wider community are important. However, I think that Ms Inkster has given her answer.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Monica Lennon
Thank you. It would be helpful if the minister could keep us up to date about the national information campaign.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Monica Lennon
We will see you soon, then.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Monica Lennon
Good morning, minister. My question picks up on behaviour change, which you have mentioned a couple of times. We all recognise that that will be key to the success of the legislation. I want a bit more information about the national information campaign. What is the budget for that campaign and what will be its duration? You also talked about the importance of local messaging, so will there be assistance for local authorities to do the sort of hyper-local messaging that will make sure that we can get people on board as much as possible?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Monica Lennon
Thank you for elaborating. Obviously, the inquiry is looking at what a modern sustainable ferry service will look like in the future, but we cannot detach that from the shoreside infrastructure that you mentioned. Before I move to Helen Inkster, do you want to add anything about that wider infrastructure?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Monica Lennon
If I have got that wrong, you can let us know afterwards. I come to Helen Inkster.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Monica Lennon
Yes. At the start of the meeting, in response to my colleagues, you said that safety is paramount. There was a bit of a safety scandal last year, and I am wondering what lessons were learned from that. Did the company learn any lessons?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Monica Lennon
I want to pick up the issue of affordability. As you will be aware, the Scottish Government’s on-going fair fares review is looking at the prospect of travel discounts, including the possibility of publicly funded free travel for transport services such as ferry services. I understand that, at the moment, a limited number of islanders are entitled to free ferry travel. I am keen to hear your views on that. Would you welcome a scheme to expand discounted travel?
