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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COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement, Coronavirus Act Reports and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 16 September 2021
Siobhian Brown
I apologise to other members who wanted to ask more questions, but we are really pushed for time. That concludes our consideration of the agenda item. I thank the Deputy First Minister and his officials for their time today.
We now move to consideration of the motion on the made affirmative instrument that was considered under the previous item. Deputy First Minister, would you like to make any more remarks on the Scottish statutory instrument before we vote on the motion?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Vaccination Certification
Meeting date: 16 September 2021
Siobhian Brown
Mr Stevenson, are bars and nightclubs using the track and trace QR codes that are already in place in restaurants as people gain entry?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Vaccination Certification
Meeting date: 16 September 2021
Siobhian Brown
We will have the opportunity to ask scientific evidence-based questions in the next evidence session with the medical experts.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Vaccination Certification
Meeting date: 16 September 2021
Siobhian Brown
As members have no further questions, I thank the witnesses for their evidence and for giving us their time. It has been informative. If they would like to raise any further points with the committee, they can do so in writing. The clerks would be happy to liaise with them about how to do that.
I suspend the meeting to allow for a changeover of witnesses. I advise members that there will be time for a short comfort break.
10:26 Meeting suspended.10:31 On resuming—
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Vaccination Certification
Meeting date: 16 September 2021
Siobhian Brown
At item 2, we will take evidence from a range of stakeholders on vaccination certification. I welcome to the meeting Neil Doncaster, the chief executive of the Scottish Professional Football League and a member of Scottish football’s Covid-19 joint response group; Gavin Stevenson of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association; and Dr Catriona McMillan, the convener of the Law Society of Scotland’s health and medical law sub-committee.
On 1 September, the Scottish Government announced its intention to introduce and put in place a vaccination certification system by 1 October. The purpose of today’s meeting is to take evidence from stakeholders on the proposed scheme. Some of its details are still to be worked out, so we intend to listen to your views and feed them back to the Scottish ministers directly in our regular evidence sessions with them. Any issues that you raise will also inform our scrutiny of any relevant legislation that is introduced to give effect to the scheme. Your input is very valuable to the committee.
I will ask the first question. What are the key issues for the committee to consider in scrutinising the implementation of the proposed scheme?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Siobhian Brown
Thank you, cabinet secretary. We will turn to questions, and I will start by asking a few.
I welcome the recent implementation of the QR code for international travel, but what measures are in place for people who do not have access to the internet or a compatible mobile phone, or those who are digitally excluded?
In recent weeks, there have been problems with the recognition of vaccinations that took place outwith the Scottish national health service, such as where people had one vaccination in England and one in Scotland. I have a constituent who had two vaccinations in America, but those are not recognised by NHS Scotland when it comes to providing him with a vaccination certificate. What discussions has the Scottish Government had with the UK Government, the European Union or other countries regarding mutual recognition of vaccinations for vaccination passports for international travellers?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Siobhian Brown
Are members content for motions S6M-00699, S6M-00697, S6M-00696, S6M-00698, S6M-00727, S6M-00726, S6M-00903, S6M-00833 and S6M-00976 to be moved en bloc?
Members indicated agreement.
Motions moved
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 13) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/237) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel etc.) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) (No. 3) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/254) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 14) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/256) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel etc.) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) (No. 4) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/261) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel etc.) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) (No. 5) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/264) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel etc.) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) (No. 6) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/265) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 15) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/275) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel etc.) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) (No. 7) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/278) be approved.
That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 16) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/290) be approved.—[Michael Matheson]
Motions agreed to.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Siobhian Brown
The committee will in due course publish a report to the Parliament setting out our decision on the statutory instruments that have been considered at this meeting.
That concludes our consideration of the item and our time with the cabinet secretary. I thank the cabinet secretary and his officials for their attendance this morning.
The committee’s next meeting will be on 16 September, when we will take evidence from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery on ministerial statements on Covid-19, the Coronavirus (Extension and Expiry) (Scotland) Act 2021 reports to the Scottish Parliament, and subordinate legislation.
That concludes the public part of our meeting.
11:29 Meeting continued in private until 11:36.COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Siobhian Brown
Good morning and welcome to the third meeting of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee in 2021.
Under agenda item 1, do we agree to take item 4, which is consideration of evidence heard, in private?
Members indicated agreement.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Siobhian Brown
Cabinet secretary, would you like to make any opening remarks before we move to questions?
