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 874 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Complex Mesh Surgical Service
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Jenni Minto
I agree that waiting times of that length must be incredibly difficult for the women who are waiting for the referral and for the discussions to find out what their best pathway is—the best course of action that they can be offered for what is a very debilitating and pretty awful situation to find themselves in.
My officials correspond and meet regularly with the health boards and NSS to ensure that everyone is across the pathways and understands the need to ensure that this is done with the patient at the centre of it, which is how we would hope to achieve any improvement in waiting lists. As Greig Chalmers indicated earlier, the whole system has been improved by listening to those who are waiting in order to improve their experiences while they are waiting. We have introduced a waiting well plan, and, in my role as women’s health minister, I am looking at how that can be connected into the women’s health plan.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Complex Mesh Surgical Service
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Jenni Minto
If I recall correctly, the evidence that the committee received two weeks ago indicated that the pathway is clearly laid out and that there is an electronic referral to the GG&C complex mesh surgical service. That is the clear pathway that has been introduced. Greig Chalmers would like to comment on that.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Complex Mesh Surgical Service
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Jenni Minto
My understanding is that there is a clear pathway. I saw it when I was on the NHS Inform website this morning. I have a copy of it here, and it is described as the complex mesh surgical service pathway. I would be happy to submit it to the committee after this evidence session.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Complex Mesh Surgical Service
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Jenni Minto
The bill was passed in 2021-22.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Complex Mesh Surgical Service
Meeting date: 16 May 2023
Jenni Minto
My understanding is that the GP refers women to their local health board, which then refers them to the complex mesh surgical service, which is managed by NSS and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Petition
Meeting date: 29 March 2023
Jenni Minto
I want to follow on from Karen Adam’s question about improved dog welfare. In the introduction to your report, you talk about the term “cruelty”, which has sometimes been used as a synonym for welfare. Can you put on record the difference between those two descriptive terms?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Devolution Post-EU
Meeting date: 23 March 2023
Jenni Minto
Thank you, Professor McHarg—this session has been really informative. Thank you for your paper as well.
I have been listening to what you have said. I hope that I am not misquoting you, but you implied that there was a need to amend the devolution statutes in a “consensual” manner. I am interested in that point. We have had some suggestions that looking at taking back control included the idea of fully taking back control to Westminster, which could have changed the way of thinking about devolution. In your paper, you talk about changes taking place
“in an ad-hoc, often rushed and largely non-consensual manner”.
Given where we are just now, how do you think the four Parliaments could move to amending the statutes in a consensual manner?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Devolution Post-EU
Meeting date: 23 March 2023
Jenni Minto
That is helpful. You touched on the role of Parliaments and the capacity that the devolved Parliaments have, and you noted what Professor McEwen said last week. Can you expand on our capacity as a Parliament to scrutinise not only legislation that we want to pass and which is appropriate for Scotland but changes that Westminster makes that impact on us?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 22 March 2023
Jenni Minto
Thank you for joining us. I will follow on from the point that was made by my colleague Dr Allan. When I travel around my constituency, it is very clear that one size does not fit all. That applies within Scotland, and, as you have explained, there is also the comparison between Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom. Could you expand on that point?
Could you also tell us the key challenges for the farming and crofting sector and how a new rural policy could overcome them?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 22 March 2023
Jenni Minto
As you have touched on, farmers need to think about the long term—they cannot make decisions in a year. How could the bill help in that regard? Currently, what challenges are there with regard to long-term planning?
