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 1939 contributions
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Economy and Fair Work Committee
Tourism and Hospitality
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Michelle Thomson
Good morning. I am aware of time, so I have just a couple of questions. First, with regard to the status of phase 1 projects, I am aware that two are at amber—destination net zero and the Scottish tourism observatory. Before I go on to another question, I want to get a sense of the current status and rationale and any further thoughts about those projects. That question goes to whoever is the most appropriate person to answer.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Tourism and Hospitality
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Michelle Thomson
Finally, do you want to put anything else on the record in relation to your comment about there being no easy investment solutions? A lot of what we have seen has been exacerbated by the pandemic and, if you like, the flow of funds.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Tourism and Hospitality
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Michelle Thomson
Do you have anything to add, Vicki? I know that Rob Dickson and I were focusing on capex and the inability to carry that forward, although I also know that you can carry forward revenue. Is there anything more that you want to say about investment before we move on? I am aware that time is of the essence.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Tourism and Hospitality
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Michelle Thomson
Thank you for that, Marc, but before we move on, do you have hard data on women-led businesses, and do you routinely disaggregate that data in any surveys? I am heartened by the warm fuzzy feeling that I am getting from you, but data is everything.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Tourism and Hospitality
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Michelle Thomson
It certainly does. Does Vicki Miller have anything to add to that?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Tourism and Hospitality
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Michelle Thomson
Stephen and Leon, in no particular order, could you answer the same question?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Tourism and Hospitality
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Michelle Thomson
Is it not the case that, given the high proportion of women in tourism and hospitality already, you are already well versed in some of the flexible working practices that have now been introduced in other sectors? After all, women often have to juggle multiple elements in their lives. Would that be true?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Tourism and Hospitality
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Michelle Thomson
Thank you. Rob mentioned something about capital expenditure, which is the other area that I wanted to ask about. A comment in the minutes of STERG’s most recent meeting notes that the investment models have been challenging. You commented on the financial accountability rules and the fact that the Scottish Government cannot offer any flexibility. Is my understanding correct—that that is simply to do with the fact that the Scottish Government, according to the fiscal framework rules by which it is bound, cannot carry forward? In effect, by law, it is not in a position to offer flexibility. If that is correct, are you any further forward with that blocker around structuring investment models? That might follow on from what Rob Dickson was saying about capex.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Tourism and Hospitality
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Michelle Thomson
Yes. What you have described is careful management of the limitations on that money, which, after all, cannot be carried forward. I would think that if you were running a business, as I have done, and were unable to carry forward any money—particularly capex, with all the implications that that would have—you would have to do a lot of work just to manage that kind of limitation. That is what I am trying to explore. Is that the case? Have you just got used to the fact that you will have to manage things around that limitation and will expend effort and incur expenditure in doing so?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2022-23
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Michelle Thomson
The cabinet secretary will be pleased to know that, coming last, I have only a few questions because it has been such a comprehensive session.
We have talked a lot about outcome. Of course, everybody is focused on outcome and efficient and effective spend of public money. To go back to your points about the carry forward, do the limits on carry forward ultimately lead to less effective use of public money? We are talking about the complexities of a budget process, and I am trying to sum up why we should care about that, if we are focused on efficient and effective use of public money. If you agree that the limits lead to less effective use of public money, it would be useful to have some examples of where that has affected decision making—particularly in capital expenditure.
