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 1347 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 June 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Will it be made clear to someone who phones up Social Security Scotland to get that initial advice that the best thing to do would be to seek advice from an independent individual?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 June 2022
Jeremy Balfour
That clarification was helpful.
I also want to ask about the review of mobility, particularly with regard to cars, that you mentioned towards the end of your opening statement. I welcome your comments in that respect. Clearly there is the pilot programme, and then the full programme will start in August. When do you expect your work in that respect to be completed, and do you have any feeling with regard to where it might go? Perhaps that second question is a bit unfair.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 June 2022
Jeremy Balfour
My understanding is that the backdating that is available is different for DLA compared to that for PIP, and that there may be people who will be less well off as a result of that transfer happening. Has any mitigation been considered for that?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 June 2022
Jeremy Balfour
No, I do not have a question.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Medium-term Financial Strategy and Resource Spending Review
Meeting date: 9 June 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Good morning, panel. Which is easier or harder to forecast: a benefit that goes to lots of people such as the cold weather payment, which I think goes to most people in Scotland, or something like the new ADP, which is much more variable? Can you guide the committee as to which benefits we should be looking at in that respect?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Medium-term Financial Strategy and Resource Spending Review
Meeting date: 9 June 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Are any of those 12 areas controversial or is there a general feeling that they are the 12 areas that we should be looking at? I know that you are not involved in the political side of things, but I presume that, at some point, both Governments will have to make a judgment call. Is it fairly clear so far that both Governments agree on the 12 areas that you have identified?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 June 2022
Jeremy Balfour
To follow that up, will people be less well off for that period under DLA compared to PIP, or it is the other way around? Which of the two is likely to see somebody getting that backdating happening quicker, or are they both the same?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 26 May 2022
Jeremy Balfour
I thank both witnesses for the evidence that they have given so far. I remind the committee that I am in receipt of PIP and will be transferred at some point. I have a quick question about the backdating of awards, which you have commented on. Could you give us a bit more information on the reduced ability to backdate awards and the financial effect that that will have on some claimants?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 26 May 2022
Jeremy Balfour
That is helpful. Is one of the issues that creditors are trying to secure the debt against other debts and so are almost going forward with legal action to secure that? Is there any other way that we can prevent people from having to go to bankruptcy while protecting creditors and having the debt repaid at some point, or is bankruptcy the only way around that?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 26 May 2022
Jeremy Balfour
My final question will just push that a bit further. With public debts to local authorities, is there any other way that local authorities could act without having to put people into bankruptcy?
