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 1654 contributions
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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Petition
Meeting date: 21 September 2021
Maggie Chapman
I thank both of you for the clear summaries that you have provided this morning and for your detailed submissions.
I want to follow up on how legislation might have an impact on healthcare professionals, among whom I would include psychotherapeutic professionals. How can we ensure that the way in which we craft the definition the legislation provides clarity on which practices are allowable and which are not? There is an issue around medical professionals being able to offer support, guidance and advice on a range of options for people who may suffer from gender dysphoria, for instance.
I would be interested to hear your views on how we get that element right so that we ban what we need to ban but do not encroach on some of the very sensitive conversations that a medical professional should have with a patient—with the person in front of them.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Economic Recovery
Meeting date: 15 September 2021
Maggie Chapman
We might come back to you on the learning that you get from that tool, because it sounds really interesting.
You both talked about linking economic transformation to community wellbeing. That is really important, and it is a strand of work that is in development around the wellbeing economy. My second question is on that subject. How are you supporting businesses and modelling the leadership to enhance activities in line with the wellbeing economy? I am particularly interested in the links to community wealth building and those kinds of fundamental transformations that will change how people relate to their local economies, never mind a broader economic system.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Economic Recovery
Meeting date: 15 September 2021
Maggie Chapman
Thank you all for the information that you have provided so far this morning. I am going to pick up on something that allows us to look ahead and see how planning is shaping up for the immediate future and longer term. The transition to net zero is expected to be a significant theme across the new economic strategy for Scotland. I have a question for Adrian Gillespie and Malcolm Roughead. How aware and prepared are businesses in your areas, and what is your organisation doing to support the transition? Do we need to be thinking about different approaches around increased conditionality, for instance, with notions of fair work and the move to net zero as we look ahead? Adrian Gillespie can go first and then Malcolm Roughead.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Economic Recovery
Meeting date: 15 September 2021
Maggie Chapman
I thank the panel for joining us. I have questions on two different but connected areas, the first of which is place-based economic development. The advisory group on economic recovery suggested that we need more regional place-based approaches to economic development as the current system is perhaps a little too top-down. Do you expect to see regional place-based approaches in the new economic development strategies that are under development? Given that your organisations are regionally based, what learning can you give us for thinking about this more generally? I ask Jane Morrison-Ross and Carroll Buxton to answer those questions.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Interests
Meeting date: 15 September 2021
Maggie Chapman
I have no relevant financial interests, but I refer members to my entry in the register of member’s interests. I am a member of Unite the Union.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Economic Recovery
Meeting date: 15 September 2021
Maggie Chapman
That links to what you said in answer to a previous question around diversification and loves local. There is a huge opportunity there.
I want to extend this a little bit and look more broadly. Decades of business support and economic development have not really changed systemic issues in our economy, with low productivity, stagnating rates of entrepreneurialism and so on. What could we do better in the coming years so that we do not just keep doing more of the same? How can we do that better and in a way that will drive the change in direction that we need, not only around net zero but longer term and more broadly? That question is for Adrian Gillespie and Malcolm Roughead.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Scottish Government Priorities for Equalities and Human Rights
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Maggie Chapman
In that written information, could you clearly address the 10 risks that were identified in the equality and fairer Scotland budget statement? That would help us to be clear about what work is happening against each of those identified risks. Similarly, it would be useful to have information on progress against each of the recommendations of the equality budget advisory group.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Scottish Government Priorities for Equalities and Human Rights
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Maggie Chapman
I have a couple of questions on how we embed equalities and human rights into our budget process in a meaningful way. What steps is the Scottish Government taking to build the capacity of all Scottish Government members and officials to ensure that budget spend advances our equalities and human rights agenda? Further, how do we ensure that our budget processes are as transparent as possible, especially around those issues? How do we inform those who are doing the budget setting while being transparent in the interests of those who might want to be involved in that process?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Petition
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Maggie Chapman
Thank you for that. Who, then, has the responsibility for ensuring that victims of coercion or the kind of non-consensual approach in a faith-based setting, which Megan Snedden talked about, know that what is happening is wrong? I suppose that it comes back to education and collective responsibility in society. Does anyone have something else to say about that? If people do not know that what is happening to them is wrong, how can they get out of that situation and get support?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Scottish Government Priorities for Equalities and Human Rights
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Maggie Chapman
I thank the cabinet secretary for the answers that she has given so far. I add my voice to her earlier comments and put on record my very strong support for reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004. As a woman, I do not think that it has any impact on my rights or women’s rights in general. I think that there is no conflict between those rights and the measures that are being taken to let trans people live as who they are.
I want to ask a couple of questions on new Scots refugees and the support that is available to them. I welcome your unequivocal support for Afghan refugees. The new Scots refugee integration strategy will come to an end next year. Can you provide a little bit more detail about what plans the Scottish Government has, in addition to the £500,000 support for local authorities to accommodate more unaccompanied children, to refresh and expand the strategy, especially in the light of the increased demand resulting from the refugees coming from Afghanistan?
