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 1957 contributions
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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 31 May 2023
Rachael Hamilton
Such as?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 31 May 2023
Rachael Hamilton
To be compliant with the ECHR, if there is a vexatious complaint, there must be an immediate investigation and evidence to suggest that there has been wrongdoing.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Rural Affairs and Islands Remit
Meeting date: 31 May 2023
Rachael Hamilton
Good morning, cabinet secretary. Clearly, there is a call to maintain direct payments in tiers 1 and 2. The arguments are made on the basis that, currently, farmers are looking at efficiencies, improving the environment and all the rest of it. Removing those payments without clarity would mean that they could not plan for the future. We know that the livestock industry is contracting and that that genetic bank of high-quality livestock will never be able to be replaced. What impact study has been done on what you have said about pushing that down the line so that we look at it beyond primary legislation?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Rural Affairs and Islands Remit
Meeting date: 31 May 2023
Rachael Hamilton
Perhaps I can give you an example of individuals’ concerns. Yesterday, I spoke to a group from the islands—we know how important livestock farming and crofting are there, particularly in the less favoured areas. They are hearing suggestions that, instead of the livestock farming that is so important to their livelihoods being considered, trees are going to be planted in places such as Westray, where they cannot grow. The Government therefore needs to be very clear in its communications about the tiers and the sustainability of the future for farmers and crofters.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Rural Affairs and Islands Remit
Meeting date: 31 May 2023
Rachael Hamilton
I have a quick point on that. During our evidence sessions, we have heard from various members of the ARIOB and other stakeholders that it is very difficult to establish the baseline so that they can work out what the outcome is for environmental benefit. I have made the point in the chamber that it is particularly difficult because farmers have already spent thousands on thousands of pounds undertaking measures, including soil testing. They have been spending and investing their own money, because they know that doing so reduces input costs and increases productivity and efficiency. How will the Government ensure that the individuals who have already carried out those measures are rewarded? Where will the baseline start?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Rural Affairs and Islands Remit
Meeting date: 31 May 2023
Rachael Hamilton
Will you give us an overview of the work that the food security unit is carrying out?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 31 May 2023
Rachael Hamilton
Do you already have that evidence?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 31 May 2023
Rachael Hamilton
You mentioned the Werritty report, which says that licensing should be introduced only if raptor populations have not improved. What evidence do you have to suggest that raptor persecution and grouse moors are connected? On what objective evidence are you basing your assertions on the rates of raptor persecution? The golden eagle project is eight years old, so it is now out of date.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 31 May 2023
Rachael Hamilton
Was there evidence to suggest the connection? What did you use—DNA or other things? How did you connect the crimes to the grouse moors or establish that the persecution was committed by somebody who was managing a grouse moor?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 31 May 2023
Rachael Hamilton
Can you provide the committee with that specific evidence so that we can take a look at it? I cannot see it in the information that we have. The offences overall in the wildlife crime reports are not split between those that connect to grouse moors and others. The numbers of raptor persecution offences are coming down, so clearly whatever is happening out there is working.
Professor Werritty said to the Government in his recommendations that, if the raptor population numbers did not improve, a licensing scheme would be appropriate.
