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 5835 contributions
|
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 19 April 2023
Ariane Burgess
That is probably something that we should take away. We should reflect seriously on the idea of food being part of our national security, given how events have brought that idea to the fore.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 19 April 2023
Ariane Burgess
Is anyone else able to take that question? Maybe no one else was paying attention because I said that it was for David. Will livestock production be more at risk from climate change than other farming sectors, because of heat stress in animals and a shortage of forage? If that is the case, how can the sector adapt to climate impacts while minimising its contribution to climate change?
It seems that those questions were too geeky for people. Brilliant—we have some takers. We will hear from Morgan Vaughan, then Tim Benton.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 19 April 2023
Ariane Burgess
Thank you for that response. I will move on to question 4, on resilience, if that is appropriate. My question follows on from what Tim Benton was just saying. I am sorry if that muddles things up, deputy convener.
I will stick with Tim Benton, because you said that you could talk about this all day. You have touched on this, but it would be good to continue with the idea of food security. The papers for today’s meeting make it clear that ecosystem resilience affects food security and the resilience of farm businesses, which you have been talking about.
Our nation’s ability to continue producing food and feeding our citizens depends on working within planetary boundaries. You have described two ways of doing that: intensive farming and working with nature. What do we need to see in our agriculture and land use policy, including in the agriculture bill—which I keep coming back to, because I really want us to get it right—and what should be the criteria for support in the future payment framework in order to ensure long-term food security? What do we need to see in the payment systems?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 19 April 2023
Ariane Burgess
I have a number of questions to ask under question 3, the first of which is for David Harley. You might not be able to respond to this question, but it is triggered by work that SEPA has been doing. I am aware that SEPA has been working on a sector plan for livestock production. Is livestock production more at risk from climate change than other farming sectors, because of heat stress in animals and a shortage of forage? If that is the case, how can the sector adapt to climate impacts while minimising its contribution to climate change?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Ariane Burgess
Do members agree that we do not wish to make any recommendations in relation to the instruments?
Members indicated agreement.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Ariane Burgess
The next item on our agenda is to take evidence on building safety. Last May, the committee took evidence from stakeholders and the Scottish Government. The committee agreed to return to the issue on an annual basis.
We are joined in the room by John-Paul Breslin, who is building standards team leader at Stirling Council and chair of Local Authority Building Standards Scotland; Calum McQueen, who is technical surveying manager for e.surv Limited chartered surveyors; and Alastair Ross, who is the assistant director and head of public policy for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland at the Association of British Insurers. We are joined online by Nigel Sellars, who is a senior specialist in valuation and property standards for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. I welcome the witnesses to the meeting. We were also due to hear from Chris Ashurst from the High Rise Scotland Action Group, but, unfortunately, he has withdrawn due to ill health.
We will try to direct questions to a specific witness, where possible. If anyone would like to come in, please indicate that to the clerks, and Nigel Sellars, please type the letter R in the chat function. There is no need for you to manually turn on your microphones as we will do that for you.
I will start. I have two questions and I will direct them both to Nigel. If anyone else wants to come in, please do so. My questions might have been more appropriate for Chris Ashurst but, unfortunately, he is not here. Are home owners and buyers still experiencing problems in moving, or obtaining mortgages, due to the zero valuation of homes caused by concerns over fire safety? If so, what impact is that having on the people who are affected? Nigel, I am aware that you have some comments on the idea of zero valuation.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Ariane Burgess
We will move on to a series of questions from Mark Griffin.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Interests
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Ariane Burgess
Good morning, and welcome to the 11th meeting in 2023 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. We have received apologies from Marie McNair. I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are on silent and all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.
The first item on our agenda is to invite Ivan McKee MSP to declare any interests.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Ariane Burgess
That comes back to the potential need for legislation in that area.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Building Safety
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Ariane Burgess
We will move to questions on the single building assessment, which will be led by Miles Briggs.
