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 977 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee
Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Katy Clark
Would it not be more sensible to have a pilot with a significant tranche of cases being dealt with in that way and then to evaluate the outcome of that, rather than making a permanent shift to a position where virtual trials are a default, which would be a significant change in the Scottish legal system?
Criminal Justice Committee
Risk Assessment in the Justice System
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Katy Clark
Concerns were first brought to people’s attention on 13 February, although I appreciate that the full extent of the problem might not have been apparent at that point. However, as yet, we have not got to the point at which cases are being looked at by those who deal with this work. Is that right?
Criminal Justice Committee
Risk Assessment in the Justice System
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Katy Clark
I appreciate that somebody might be a dangerous individual but might not have been convicted of any serious offences. However, many of that cohort would have had convictions. Did you ask for that information?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Katy Clark
What is the cabinet secretary’s understanding of how prisons differentiate between different types of prisoners? For example, during Covid, children in prison have been subject to the same measures to combat virus infection as adults have. How do the prisons balance those rights and look at individuals, particularly those who might be more vulnerable?
Criminal Justice Committee
Risk Assessment in the Justice System
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Katy Clark
I want to pick up the point that was made about other systems. Have you been able to work out the profile of the cases that we are talking about, particularly some of the more serious offences? How many sexual offenders are involved, for example? Given the huge workload that is involved in reviewing the cases, how have you prioritised them? Have you been able to prioritise some of the cases that would cause the public most concern? Perhaps you can outline your approach in layperson’s language.
Criminal Justice Committee
Risk Assessment in the Justice System
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Katy Clark
For the cases that have been looked at, have you asked for a breakdown of the offences that are involved in that cohort?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Katy Clark
You spoke about human rights considerations. I presume that, in particular, you are thinking about article 3 of the European convention on human rights and whether the requirements amount to “inhuman and degrading treatment”. Will you outline what you can do in your role to ensure that the Scottish Prison Service and, in particular, governors take proportionate action? How can more resources be put in to deal with the transparency issues that Jamie Greene spoke about, given that the Scottish Prison Service has raised systems issues, and so that there is an awareness in prisons of the importance of human rights considerations?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Katy Clark
We have been given information on how the powers have been used since October 2021. As the cabinet secretary knows, the buck stops with him. To what extent is he advised of the steps that have been taken so that he can give political oversight of the situation and, if he has concerns about how the legislation was being implemented, take action or express those concerns?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 March 2022
Katy Clark
I want to raise a point about the level of income, which has been put to us by the Law Society of Scotland, and I would like to hear your reaction. The Law Society is saying that, even taking into account the recent uplifts and the increase that will be introduced by the regulations, legal aid rates will be about 60 per cent lower in real terms than they were when the Scottish Parliament was created. It is quite obvious that hourly rates have not gone up by much. The Law Society of Scotland is saying that that is in the context of a long-term decline in overall legal aid expenditure, with the 2021-22 budget being £138 million, in comparison with £160 million in 2010-11. Do you accept all that?
