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 2016 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (State Hospitals Board for Scotland)
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Emma Harper
Good morning, Robin. I am interested in some of the key performance indicators that the State Hospitals Board for Scotland publishes. When I was on the health committee in the previous parliamentary session, we talked about patients being offered an annual physical health review. It looks as if the target is 90 per cent but that only 51.78 per cent is being achieved. What actions have been taken to address that specific key performance indicator in relation to the annual physical health review?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (State Hospitals Board for Scotland)
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Emma Harper
Do you measure the activity of individual patients in the state hospital?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (State Hospitals Board for Scotland)
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Emma Harper
I will be brief. I want to go back to what you said about induction, orientation and ways of welcoming, developing and retaining new staff. Previously, I was a clinical educator and I was responsible for developing and delivering an induction programme for all new staff. Do you get to work with other boards and see how they are delivering certain programmes? I am talking about training and induction not necessarily for mental health staff but for other practice, too, because it feels, sometimes, that the state hospital is quite separate. What do you think about connecting with other health boards?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Emma Harper
Good morning, everybody.
I want to pick up on Kim Atkinson’s point about availability of facilities. Gillian Martin, our previous convener, used to say that in Iceland they would basically hand the keys of the school over to the kids, because they trusted them just to get on with things and access the facilities. We do not do that sort of thing, but is that something that we should progress? Do you have data on use of the school estate after, say, 4 o’clock in the afternoon? Should we be looking at what other countries do and pursuing the models that they have in place? David Ferguson mentioned what is being done in Denmark, I think, and I have been looking at what the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media has been doing in America to encourage young women into sport and athletics. We could look at best practice in other countries; should we pursue that?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Emma Harper
Can I—
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (State Hospitals Board for Scotland)
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Emma Harper
When Professor Lindsay Thomson came to the committee, I asked her about the challenge of overweight and increased body mass index in patients and how to support them to have a healthier weight. Professor Thomson’s said that the on-site hospital shop had made a decision to have 80 per cent healthy foods and 40 per cent unhealthy foods, whereas other places were doing 50:50. That was a goal. At the moment, I am reading about ultra-high processed foods in a book by Chris van Tulleken, in which he talks about the correlation between UHP foods and obesity. How do you support people when activity might not be easy to achieve and groceries are brought in by family members? That issue was highlighted the last time a state hospital representative was here.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (State Hospitals Board for Scotland)
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Emma Harper
I will ask one final wee quick question. If someone is transferred to the state hospital and is then relocated to another less secure facility, do you measure that as part of performance measurement? Is that part of tracking patients’ movements?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (State Hospitals Board for Scotland)
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Emma Harper
Okay. I will ask another wee question. We have asked other boards how they will achieve net zero. I am interested to hear what the state hospital is doing to take forward net zero activities.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (State Hospitals Board for Scotland)
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Emma Harper
Yes. I assume that, once someone is admitted to the state hospital, there is the potential for them to be transferred to a less secure facility, as part of their progress. Is that monitored?
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Emma Harper
There is no doubt that, as Monica Lennon has just highlighted, the soaring price of essential products is exacerbating the already challenging circumstances facing parents, particularly those who are on low incomes. What additional action is the Scottish Government taking within its limited powers and budget to support people during this cost of living crisis? What more does the cabinet secretary consider that the UK Government should be doing to help?
