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 1215 contributions
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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 5 March 2024
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Tom Arthur
I have two points to make on that. The first, which goes back to my previous answer and my introductory remarks, is about the timelines and the signalling of our intent. Secondly, on the consultation, a consultation that is just with local government will typically be around two weeks. My officials will correct me if I am wrong, but I think that the consultation in this case was four weeks, so it was more than the normal time.
We have consulted in a way that is consistent with how we normally engage with local government. More generally, the context in which the consultation was undertaken was that there had been extended engagement over a period in which we had indicated our concerns.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 5 March 2024
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Tom Arthur
We will continue to engage constructively with local government on those matters but, as I touched on earlier, we in the Government have an obligation in the broader stewardship of the public finances and in assuring that there is an appropriate regulatory environment.
Elanor Davies may be able to provide more detail on the other elements that were consulted on and the work that is on-going.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 5 March 2024
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Tom Arthur
As I said, if local authorities want to work with the Government on particular points in addressing any of their potential concerns, or other issues that could arise, we want that to happen.
I touched on the areas that we consulted on that we are not taking forward. We have taken a constructive approach to that with the establishment of a joint working group and the deferring of any further changes to 2027 at the earliest. That demonstrates the Government’s balanced and proportionate approach. It is very much in the spirit of constructive partnership.
For the reasons that we have set out, we believe that we have to take forward these regulations at this time, given the significant risks that could ensue if we did not do so.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 5 March 2024
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Tom Arthur
If local authorities would welcome clarification on specific areas of, or any matter in, the broader regulatory environment, we would want to engage on that constructively. I ask Elanor Davies whether she has a response to any specific points in that area.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Tom Arthur
I do not want to pre-empt the outcome of the discussions. Clearly, they cover a range of portfolio and ministerial interests.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Tom Arthur
In general terms, I would say that you have touched on a very important point. With any programme of public service reform, any spend-to-save approach or any investment, what the constraining of budgets will mean for any Government—and it is one of the effects that we are still reeling from after the austerity that we have had at various points over the past 14 years—is that it will have to focus day to day on key, mission-critical tasks. Often the challenge that we have with reform is that we need to identify parallel funding to support change and transformation. That is just a general point, but all Governments have to contend with such things.
What we are seeing feeding through to next year’s budget, particularly around capital, are the consequences of decisions taken by the UK Government, which predominantly impact the discretionary fund that we have available. We are trying to manage that impact in a way that is consistent with the principles and values that the Government has articulated, in recognition of the key and central role that the NHS plays, not just in delivering public services, but as a key economic actor within the wider Scottish economy, too, and in recognition, too, of the key expectations that Parliament and indeed the public have that it be resourced adequately. That, again, has been reflected in the decisions that we have taken.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Tom Arthur
I can appreciate that there will be a range of views but, along with seeking to mitigate the risk of waste tourism, we have always wanted to provide a degree of certainty and stability for the sector as well. Furthermore, we have a clear target towards the end of 2025 and our approach on tax policy is consistent with that.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Tom Arthur
I clarify that the money is capital and has not been allocated through the spring budget revision that you refer to.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Tom Arthur
As I say, the money would be classified as capital expenditure to support the existing wide-ranging variety of work within the health portfolio. I cannot provide you with a line-by-line list of all of the various expenditure that is classed as capital expenditure within the health service.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Tom Arthur
Clearly, as I touched on earlier, we will have an exceptionally challenging set of circumstances around capital over the medium term, which the committee appreciates. Those circumstances form the context in which decisions on future capital projects—not just in the health service, but more widely—are considered.
The budget, of course, relates to the current financial year. This relates to ongoing activity that is part of the capital expenditure of the health service. I can appreciate the question about perception about money being allocated, but it is important to make the distinction between what is happening within this financial year—supporting ongoing NHS capital expenditure that covers a range of areas, which, I am sure, the committee appreciates—and what we are looking at from 2024-25 going forward, in the context of the capital constraints under which we will be operating.
