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 2001 contributions
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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 May 2022
Pam Duncan-Glancy
I speak in support of amendment 16. I understand that it will not go to a vote today, but I reiterate my colleague Richard Leonard’s calls to the cabinet secretary to produce a financial resolution ahead of stage 3. My colleague Fulton MacGregor has noted that the Presiding Officer has said that we cannot vote on the amendment today, but the Presiding Officer did not say that the bill was not the place to include compensation. The Presiding Officer said that, because the bill did not have a financial resolution, we could not consider the amendment. The reason why there is not a financial resolution is not that the bill is not competent to consider it; it is because the Government did not produce one. The Government did not produce one because it has said that, until now, financial compensation would be the responsibility of a different Government.
This is an example of putting our money where our mouth is. If we think that this Parliament can offer the pardon to miners that they deserve, we must also agree that Parliament has the competence to pay them compensation. If it does not have the competence to do that, what competence does it have to offer the pardon? The two must go together.
I do not want to delay the bill, because time is of the essence, but I reiterate my colleague Richard Leonard’s points about the speed at which legislation can be introduced and progressed when the Government wants to do so. We have shown that during the Covid pandemic and we have seen various other examples of that, the Carer’s Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Bill being one. I urge the Government to reconsider this issue.
Finally, on my colleague Alexander Stewart’s comments about this being an issue for the UK Government, I would love more miners to be pardoned in other jurisdictions, but this is a bill of the Scottish Parliament and it is a bill to acknowledge the injustice felt by miners. As we know, the injustice was at the hands of the police, the sheriffs and the justice system, all of which were part of the separate legal system in Scotland at the time, and for which the Scottish Parliament assumed responsibility later. It is not sufficient to say that this Parliament does not have the competency to consider the issue of compensation, so I would urge the Government to seriously consider the financial resolution that would be required. At least, then, if the Government does not necessarily believe that compensation should be paid—although I think that colleagues do believe that—Parliament can make that decision for itself at stage 3.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 May 2022
Pam Duncan-Glancy
Good morning to the committee, the cabinet secretary and all those who have joined us in the public gallery.
I will start by moving the amendments in my name, in case I forget at the end. I move amendments 4A, 4B, 13 and 14 in this group—
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Pam Duncan-Glancy
I will direct it to Jim McPake and Charlene Kane.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Pam Duncan-Glancy
No. I will just say thank you.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Pam Duncan-Glancy
The question is for Charlene Kane and Jim McPake, please.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Pam Duncan-Glancy
Conor or Lawrie, please.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Pam Duncan-Glancy
Good morning. Thank you for all the information that you shared in advance, and for the work that you have been doing this year—I hear how hard it has been. Some of what you have said is hard to hear, so I cannot imagine how hard it must have been to deliver the service that you have had to deliver over the past year—thank you for doing it. I am genuinely terrified for people just now. I do not know how they are going to meet their bills and pay for food or basics, as you have said, and I think that we need to do much more than we are doing.
My first question is on the support that your organisations get and need. Charlene Kane, Matthew Irvine and Alan McIntosh have touched on the financial pressures on their organisations and what that means. Will you say a little more about the pressures that you are under and whether the Government has been in touch with you to talk about how to manage the demand? I ask Charlene and Matthew to answer that.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Pam Duncan-Glancy
I, too, thank the panel members for their answers so far. I have one quick follow-up question on the welfare fund, and then two very brief questions on other matters.
About one third of refusals of applications for the Scottish welfare fund have been because of previous applications. Are people using it multiple times to supplement their low income?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Pam Duncan-Glancy
Thank you for the information that you have shared with us just now and in advance, as well as the work that you have done over the past couple of years, which have been really hard, with the people that you represent. Those of you who listened to the previous panel will have heard some stories about the effect of that.
I will start on that, if that is okay, convener, before I move on to digital exclusion. Today is international workers memorial day and it is important for us all to remember that everything has an impact on people in their jobs. We should not have to go to our jobs and get sick or stressed. We should not have to take those jobs home, nor should they affect our mental health. Those are unacceptable experiences for everyone in the workplace. I would be keen to hear from David McNeill about the sorts of pressures the organisations that he represents are under. What is the demand on their services, specifically front-line services? Have there been any attempts by the Government or others to support that demand and to increase resources for it?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Pam Duncan-Glancy
That leads to my next question. Jim McPake mentioned slogans about people having to choose to eat or to heat. You are waiting for action from the Government. The response in Scotland has been to take £150 off the council tax bill, which works out at something like £4 a week. Can you comment on that response and say what else is needed? To me, money being taken off a bill is quite different to actually getting money in your pocket.
