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 873 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Oliver Mundell
Calls to do more to capitalise on the cultural value of Burns are nothing new. In October 2019, we saw the publication of the Scottish Government funded Pittock report, following sustained calls from our former colleague Joan McAlpine, whose contribution on the issue is much missed in the chamber. What has been done to implement the report’s recommendations—particularly recommendation 5, which highlights the opportunities to promote more integrated Burns trails and the significant untapped potential of Ellisland farm and museum?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
General Question Time
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Oliver Mundell
Our schools went into the pandemic underprepared after the SNP cut teacher numbers to the bone. Does the new announcement on teacher numbers amount to a recognition that the SNP got this wrong?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Decision Time
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Oliver Mundell
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My screen jammed with the wrong vote recorded. I was trying to vote no.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Skills: Alignment with Business Needs
Meeting date: 15 December 2021
Oliver Mundell
Yes, that is starting to answer my question. As someone who represents a constituency in the south of Scotland, I am pleased that you are looking at a specific programme there, but I still have concerns. You used the word “predominantly” when you were talking about the institutions that get support. I look at the Crichton campus in Dumfries and I see the University of the West of Scotland and the University of Glasgow, which are typically more urban based or new institutions. What more support can be provided to them? My particular concern, which is probably broader than just about rural areas, is that, while we continue with a model whereby institutions are funded by fees only to provide courses, it is difficult to see how those outreach campuses can be fully supported and how students who are learning remotely can get the support that they need, particularly off the back of the pandemic, when broader issues around mental health, student support and wider wellbeing have been identified. Anything you can add on that would be helpful.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Skills: Alignment with Business Needs
Meeting date: 15 December 2021
Oliver Mundell
Is it right to say that you sign off on those places and provide the funding?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Skills: Alignment with Business Needs
Meeting date: 15 December 2021
Oliver Mundell
You agree that with them, though, as part of the overall package—is that correct?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Skills: Alignment with Business Needs
Meeting date: 15 December 2021
Oliver Mundell
I will leave it there for now, convener. Thank you.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Skills: Alignment with Business Needs
Meeting date: 15 December 2021
Oliver Mundell
Thank you, convener. I do not want to make a statement, but, in the light of the previous comments, it would be remiss of me not to refer to the fact that, for many people in rural areas, learning online is a positive but there are benefits from learning in person and with other people. I ask that the funding council and others be mindful of that, as it relates to my substantive question, which is about whether the funding council feels that enough support is going to rural education providers under the current model and whether the additional costs of delivering education in rural communities at higher and further education levels is fully reflected.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Skills: Alignment with Business Needs
Meeting date: 15 December 2021
Oliver Mundell
Karen Watt.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Schools and Early Learning (Recovery and Improvement)
Meeting date: 14 December 2021
Oliver Mundell
The shocking results reveal the brutal impact of Covid on young people, which has been heightened by years of Scottish National Party failure. Scotland’s schools came into the pandemic unprepared after 14 years of the SNP letting standards slip. The double whammy of Covid and the SNP’s botched reforms has sent the attainment gap between the richest pupils and the poorest pupils spiralling to its worst-ever level, and the grim statistics show that, despite the best efforts of teachers and parents, pupils throughout Scotland are not reaching the expected levels of attainment in reading, writing, numeracy, literacy, and listening and talking.
Dreadful results on that scale should shame Nicola Sturgeon. She promised to close the attainment gap but, instead, it is wider than ever. Education has never been her top priority—and that shows. The SNP Government has let down our children and young people.
Cabinet secretary, are you ready to admit that it was a mistake to deny the need for catch-up plans for our young people? Will you say sorry for failing and then abandoning this generation of pupils?
