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 1757 contributions
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Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Douglas Lumsden
I do not dispute that the figures show that there will be an increase in revenue. However, I feel that, as Michelle Thomson said, no assessment has been done of the wider impact that the decision will have on aspects such as universities and the damage that that will cause to our economy. I will leave it there.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Douglas Lumsden
If this was just an increase in tax on second homes or even holiday homes, I would fully support it, but I feel that there is another piece to it—a piece that I spoke about earlier—which relates to students who are trying to rent accommodation. My son has recently been through the experience of trying to rent a flat, and I know how difficult it is for many students. The market has shrunk considerably, and I think that this change will make it even worse. On the sum of £34 million, it is obviously always great to have more revenue go to the Government to spend on local services, but I have real concerns about the unintended consequences and the impact that it will have on the wider Scottish economy.
I was trying to highlight the situation for students. Some have been told to leave their course and go somewhere else. The amount of revenue that international students bring into this country is significant, and if we drive them away to places in England, for example, that will have a much bigger impact than the £34 million that is on the table will have. It seems that there is almost a war on the private rental market in this country. To get more people on to the housing ladder—more first-time buyers—the key is to build more houses. I worry that the measure will have a negative impact on that. I hope that I will be proved wrong, but I have real concerns.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Douglas Lumsden
Surely you should be aware of the issues that are affecting the housing market right now because of the lack of supply. A housing crisis that has been described as “unprecedented” by letting agents has seen students being unable to find accommodation this year and the university recommending that they drop out if housing cannot be found.
That takes us back to Michelle Thomson’s point. Surely a risk assessment should be made on the policy changes that are being introduced, so that we do not damage our university sector by telling students to leave. What impact will that have on the Scottish economy?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Douglas Lumsden
Minister, I am not saying that it is the sole factor. I was asking whether the policy will make that situation better or worse in the coming year.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Douglas Lumsden
I did not say that it was the sole factor. Will the policy make the situation better or worse?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Douglas Lumsden
I am not getting anywhere on that, so I will ask one further question. You said earlier that you welcomed the views that have been shared with the committee on the change. However, have you not ignored them all?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Douglas Lumsden
You mentioned supporting local services. However, we are actually penalising local authorities—I will not go over that again.
From all the views that have been submitted to the committee, we have heard concerns that the decision would reduce local authorities’ investments and drive private individuals out of the market, resulting in a reduction in the number of properties that are available to rent. However, you are ploughing ahead anyway.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Douglas Lumsden
Surely you must concede that it would have been better to conclude the review before making such a substantial change to the policy.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Douglas Lumsden
Minister, if I am a student, I do not want to buy a home. I will only be living there for two years, or perhaps three. What do you say to those students who cannot find a home and have been told to leave their course or perhaps, if they are an international student, to move to England instead, because they cannot find anywhere to rent? What good does that do the Scottish economy?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Douglas Lumsden
Would building more houses not be the best way to support first-time buyers? As we have heard from local authorities, the policy change might reduce the amount of investment that they make in housing and make the crisis worse.
