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 570 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2022
Evelyn Tweed
I am keen that we move forward with a co-design process in which everyone feels included and feels that they have a say, but we have caught the general drift that you do not really know what that process looks like just now. Given that, how can we ensure that we include and are listening to rural and remote areas? Mhairi Wylie talked earlier about the challenges with such a huge area; what does good co-design look like for you?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2022
Evelyn Tweed
I would like to go back to the point that Dr Gould made at the beginning of the meeting about the issues that disabled people and those in remote and rural areas experience. How can we make the co-design process more inclusive, to ensure that the issues of the past are not carried forward into the running of the national care service?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage1
Meeting date: 29 November 2022
Evelyn Tweed
Good morning, panel, and thanks for all your submissions. I would like to dig more into how you all got on during the pandemic. We have heard some good evidence about how people worked and collaborated. Margaret McCarthy, you said that you really had to think outside the box. Can you tell us about what happened during the pandemic and how we can harness that work to take it forward into the national care service?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Evelyn Tweed
Emma has helpfully covered mine.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Evelyn Tweed
To go back to what Paula Fraser said about co-design, we know that people want a shared record, in whatever form that takes. The Scottish Government consultation showed that 86 per cent of people wanted that and they wanted it to be shared across platforms. However, Paula also said that people were anxious about what co-design would look like—what it would mean and whether they would have enough time. Would it be helpful to have further guidance from the Scottish Government about what it would look like, in order to offer reassurance that there will be time to have those important conversations about control of data, mental health issues and what might be shared and in what circumstances?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Evelyn Tweed
I have rolled my questions into one large question because I knew that we were struggling for time. In evidence, we have heard that 72 per cent of respondents to the national care service consultation agreed that ministers should be accountable for the delivery of social care. Do you agree with that approach? What benefits do you foresee it bringing? Are there any risks that you would like to tell us about? I will go to Suzanne McGuinness first, and then anyone else who would like to come in.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Evelyn Tweed
Good morning. The policy memorandum states that a national social work agency would be expected to provide
“national leadership, oversight, investment and support”
to the profession.
What functions should the agency perform that are not covered by other bodies or agencies? That question goes first to Alison Bavidge.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Evelyn Tweed
Does anyone else want to come in on that one?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Evelyn Tweed
I have one more question. I understand that the SSSC supports the creation of the new agency, so what do you foresee for your future, should it come into being?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 November 2022
Evelyn Tweed
Thank you. You said earlier that Scotland’s developing a national care service is a “groundbreaking and world-leading” approach. Can you expand on that and tell us why that is the case?
