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 2004 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
National Health Service (Winter Pressures)
Meeting date: 10 January 2023
Emma Harper
I welcome the fact that the Scottish Government’s resilience room has been reconvened, given the level of pressure that our NHS and care services are facing. I am pleased that I played a wee part in suggesting that.
The First Minister’s briefing yesterday, just like the briefings during Covid, was incredibly useful and helpful. Will the Scottish Government continue to keep Parliament and the public regularly updated on the work that is being undertaken to help to address the pressures on our health and care services?
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 10 January 2023
Emma Harper
Concerns have been raised that a cold winter, coupled with the Tory-created energy crisis, will mean that large numbers of people will experience hypothermia or other serious issues linked to low body temperature. [Interruption.]
Does the cabinet secretary have concerns that unless the Tory Government takes real action to put money back in people’s pockets, such as by matching the Scottish child payment and properly supporting people on low. incomes every winter, we will only see the number of people who experience hypothermia grow as more of them face the choice between heating and eating?
Meeting of the Parliament
Point of Order
Meeting date: 22 December 2022
Emma Harper
Earlier this month, the BMA’s GP committee noted that Labour was guilty of demonising GPs who are trying their best to deliver care. What steps is the Scottish Government taking to engage constructively with our health trade unions to ensure that being a GP remains an attractive career choice with a manageable workload?
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 22 December 2022
Emma Harper
Last month, the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee heard from the chief veterinary officer, who said:
“Flu viruses generally like cold and damp conditions, so they survive much better in the winter”.
On biosecurity, which the cabinet secretary mentioned, the CVO pointed to a study that indicated that
“biosecurity improved things by a factor of 44, while housing improved things by a factor of 2.”—[Official Report, Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee, 30 November 2022; c 26, 33.]
That underlines the crucial role of biosecurity.
What can MSPs from all parties do to get out the message that biosecurity is really important and that we must focus on the crucial role that it can play?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 December 2022
Emma Harper
I have a couple of questions on the establishment of care boards. There are sections in the bill on
“Establishment and abolition of care boards”,
on
“Directions to care boards”
and on
“Removal of care board members”.
I am interested to hear how we will move forward on developing care boards, who will be on them and whether they will be commissioning or delivery bodies or a bit of both.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 December 2022
Emma Harper
I have a wee quick question. In evidence to the committee, Karen Hedge of Scottish Care expressed concerns that
“care boards ... might just be recreating a system that”—[Official Report, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, 29 November 2022; c 8.]
already exists. We have also heard folk talking about moving the deck chairs around.
I seek clarity that the bill is about establishing a care system that will benefit personally the people on the ground who have been asking for better care and support for themselves.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 December 2022
Emma Harper
I have a quick question on breaks for carers. In last week’s evidence, it was mentioned that what is sufficient for one person might differ from what is sufficient for another, so I am interested in following up on that. The bill talks about defining “sufficient breaks”. It says:
“Regulations under subsection (2) may in particular make provision about—
(a) the meaning of any reference to sufficient breaks in this Act,
(b) standards or criteria in relation to the sufficiency of such breaks (including the nature, frequency or duration of breaks)”.
At last week’s cross-party group on health inequalities, Richard Meade gave a presentation and we talked a bit about breaks. Susan Chambers, from Pasda, which is an East Lothian support group for people with autism, also spoke at the meeting.
What are your thoughts on the issue of sufficient breaks? I am not sure that further detail is needed in the bill if the matter can be dealt with through regulations.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 December 2022
Emma Harper
I will ask a short question, after which I am happy to move on, but I am sure that I will pick up on stuff later.
People have given us evidence that we should fix the situation now. They have said that we should not pursue the national care service at this point because we need to act to fix the system now. They have asked why we would waste so much money—£1.5 billion—on massive structural reform for a national care service, rather than fixing the current situation. How do you respond to that, minister?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 December 2022
Emma Harper
We have heard people talk about co-design and co-production. They are often used interchangeably, but we know that co-design is actually different from co-production. What is co-design, in terms of shaping the national care service bill?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 December 2022
Emma Harper
I will pick up on self-directed support. You came to Dumfries and we spent some time together. I appreciated that because it allowed me to see that some people were really happy with the self-directed support that they had been offered, while other folk had not been offered it or had never even heard of it.
Would a national approach to training ensure that people know that self-directed support exists, what it means and what options there are, and would that support be delivered in a more standardised way by the 32 local authorities?
