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.
Criathragan Hide all filters
Displaying 846 contributions
|
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 November 2022
Stephanie Callaghan
That was really great—what you said was dead helpful. The point about protections for chief social work officers was well made, although I note that it could apply to heads of service as well, and not just at the very top level.
My question picks up on Gillian Mackay’s points. In my constituency, Enable Scotland uses SDS and delivers personal assistants. The approach is about focusing on the individual and what matters to them, and it involves taking a wellbeing approach and a preventative approach, rather than picking from a choice of services that happen to be available. I am really interested in that approach. You mentioned the costs that are associated with it, but Enable has said that, actually, most of the time, it does not cost more, which is interesting. What recommendations would you like us to make in our report to ensure that that issue is front and centre in the bill and that we have it covered?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 November 2022
Stephanie Callaghan
I noted that COSLA’s submission talked about the bill failing to
“address the difficult issue set out in the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, that of profit within the sector.”
Its submission also said that
“Private sector provision ... accounts for 76 per cent of care home provision.”
So, it is really about profiteering rather than reinvestment. Should reform of non-residential and residential care funding be included in the national care service bill?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 November 2022
Stephanie Callaghan
My question is for Patricia Cassidy. What co-design is already under way with social work and social care staff? Is that presenting opportunities for social workers, for example, to better apply their expertise?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Stephanie Callaghan
Yes, thank you, convener.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Stephanie Callaghan
I am wondering whether there is anything you feel the Scottish Government can do to support further sharing across the college sector to embed good practice widely.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Stephanie Callaghan
I have a couple of questions that I will roll into one.
Wellbeing has rightly been a key priority, with the Scottish Government funding 80 additional university mental health counsellors. First, is adequate support available for students who are struggling with their mental health? Secondly, we heard in evidence about the positive impact of the additional mental health counsellors and about the possibility of funding them from budgets other than the education budget; can you say anything further on that just now or offer an idea of the timescales and the decisions around continued funding for mental health counsellors?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Stephanie Callaghan
Minister, I took all of that on board, and there are some good examples of progress, such as at New College Lanarkshire, which has built strong relationships and trust across its team of 1,000-plus employees, running through from janitorial to teaching staff. It has food pantries and free breakfasts, and it has created a culture of good will and mutual respect, with a joint focus on prioritising learning. There are still very challenging conversations to be had, but that certainly makes it a lot easier for that college. What further opportunities can the Scottish Government take to help to create good leadership practice and ideas for successful learning and to share that across Scotland’s college sector?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Stephanie Callaghan
What consideration has been given to improving completion rates for students with additional support needs and disabilities? What impact has regionalisation had on those students?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Stephanie Callaghan
Are students with additional support needs and disabilities able to have enough influence on college decision making—for example, at the college board level? Having that influence can help to improve the conditions for them and make it more likely that they will be able to succeed and complete.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Stephanie Callaghan
Could the Scottish Government take any steps to create more opportunities to share good practice across colleges?
