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 991 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Katy Clark
I have some questions about budgetary issues in relation to HMP Greenock. You outlined to Pauline McNeill the long lead-in times that projects can incur. There are plans for a new build in Inverclyde, but has any work started on that? On the current estate, will you outline the budgetary implications of the current fabric of HMP Greenock and the conditions that your staff and the prisoners are having to endure? I understand that substantial work is going on in relation to the walls. Will you give an update on that and the budgetary implications?
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Katy Clark
I understand all of that. Can you say how much you have spent and how much you envisage spending? If it is the case that you are unable to do the work that you think is necessary, it would be helpful for the committee to understand that.
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Katy Clark
Cabinet secretary, you will be aware of the campaign for additional funding from the Scottish Government for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spearheaded by Fire Brigades Union Scotland, and no doubt you have seen its report “Firestorm—A Report into the Future of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service”. There has been a decade of real-terms cuts to the fire service and a lack of investment—particularly capital investment but also other investment—over many years, so what the service now faces is cumulative. Are we now legally exposed as a result of, for example, the failure to provide safe systems of work and the failure to have adequate decontamination available for firefighters?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Katy Clark
My question is on both. It is to do with the language that is used.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Katy Clark
It is not for every diet but is just for the initial appearance from custody. Thank you.
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Katy Clark
Thank you.
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Katy Clark
What does that mean in budgetary terms? There are two approaches—putting more money in, and trying to make better use of the money that is already there for that purpose. Are you putting in any more money? Are you able to do that, given all the pressures on you, or are you having to cut back in financial terms? Are you trying to do things better to make them more efficient? Will you explain the strategy briefly?
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Katy Clark
That would be helpful. I appreciate that I may be asking, “How long is a piece of string?” However, it is clear that there is a disconnect and that the service has not been provided in the way that, I suspect, we would all like. I am sure that you could spend an unlimited amount on these things, but have you looked at how much it would cost to deliver an adequate service through programmes and other forms of rehabilitation? What amount should we be spending compared with what you are able to spend?
I completely understand that there are pressures on the service, particularly as prisoner numbers are increasing and are likely to continue to increase. I am not being critical, because I understand the pressures, but I am trying to understand what the disconnect is and whether you are actively engaging with it and working on it. Can you share that with the committee, perhaps in writing?
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Katy Clark
In 2019, the Parliament passed legislation that enabled the use of GPS electronic monitoring and bracelets that monitor alcohol use. Both of those technologies have the capacity and potential to reduce reoffending. I visited G4S relatively recently and I understand that it has not been asked to start work on those initiatives. I know that the cabinet secretary visited shortly before me, so I suspect that she has been looking at these issues. Is she now trying to get this work started?
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Katy Clark
I will ask a general follow-up question on that. This Parliament passed that legislation in 2019, and a huge amount of scrutiny goes into legislation. The expectation from MSPs when we pass legislation is that it will be enacted pretty much immediately. However, it seems to be a theme that legislation gets passed and it is not necessarily enacted. Is the cabinet secretary concerned about that?
