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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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
I could go into all the different sections in further detail, but the information is outlined in the letter to the committee.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
I will bring in Jamie Wilhelm to answer that question.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
The judiciary are raising important constitutional principles about the separation of powers between the Executive, the legislature and the judiciary, and we recognise the absolute necessity of those principles. It is important to be clear about what the bill does: it does not impinge on the independence of the legal profession or the judiciary. I wrote to the committee on 29 November to make clear my intention to amend the bill to address the issues.
The bill builds on the existing legislative framework, which provides a role for ministers to act in the public interest to ensure that regulation is being carried out effectively and transparently. The bill adopts existing checks and balances that require the Lord President’s consent and parliamentary scrutiny of use of delegated powers to ensure that any action is in the interests of legal practitioners and the public.
Ministers have had a role in legal regulation in Scotland since 1990. In 2007 and in 2010, Parliament placed further functions on the Scottish ministers in respect of legal services regulation. Having said that, we understand the concerns that have been raised, which is why we have committed to lodging amendments at stage 2, because we want the bill to strike the right balance for the various stakeholders.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
When we made the decision back in August, officials did start to engage with stakeholders and with the Lord President’s office about the sections that were highlighted and about where to make amendments and come to an agreement.
I appreciate what Ms Gallacher says, but when the bill was introduced, I felt that there was strong opposition to the ministerial powers in the bill and, when Esther Roberton gave evidence to the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee, she did not believe that ministers should have a role. I did not want that to detract from the general principles of the bill—although, in a way, it has done that. The general framework of the bill, which will renew the Scottish legal complaints system and make it easier for consumers, is all good and we can move forward and focus on that. I was just trying to take away the part about Scottish ministerial powers. As I said, we will update the committee about any progress on that as soon as we can.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
I saw the evidence from Bill Alexander, who said that it was challenging and sometimes traumatic for the Association of Commercial Attorneys to become a regulator. I think that that is the only organisation to have become a regulator since 1980. I also saw that Lady Dorrian said that it should be challenging to go through that process, so I think that we are striking a balance.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
I do not believe that it does so. As the committee heard in evidence last week, the Lord President already has a significant role in the oversight and regulation of legal services, which is not the same as directly regulating the provision of legal services. The Lord President is not involved in the day-to-day regulation of legal services: he has oversight of some aspects of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission but does not consider determining complaints, so I do not believe that that alters the general principles of the bill.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
Absolutely.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
Yes, I recognise that, and that is why I will be eager and keen to share where we are with each of the sections that will be amended, as my letter of last week said. As we make progress and come to agreement with our stakeholders and the Lord President, I will be happy to keep the committee updated on all progress, so that you can take a view on that for your stage 1 report.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
Yes—absolutely. My officials are having discussions with the Lord President’s office. Any such amendments will affect other parts of the bill, which is why we have to engage on all aspects of moving forward with the amendments. There is not a straight cut to remove one function and give it to the Lord President; we have to consider the whole bill while we are drafting the amendments.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
The bill tries to find a compromise in the middle. It is not trying to upset both sides. The Scottish Government carefully considered the Roberton report following its publication and had an extensive discussion with stakeholders. Although the recommendations were supported, there were polarised views from the legal sector as well.
We have heard from stakeholders that there is a lot of support for the bill. For example, Dr Marsha Scott from Scottish Women’s Aid said:
“I welcome many aspects of the bill.”—[Official Report, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, 3 October 2023; c 10.]
The removal of practising restrictions on charities directly employing a solicitor has been welcomed. That will be transformational for charities’ ability to support vulnerable people.
There are lots of positive things in the bill. I would not say that it is making both sides unhappy.
