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 1719 contributions
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Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (North-east and Moray)
Meeting date: 15 November 2023
Maggie Chapman
We hear quite a lot about challenges in the supply chain and understanding where those challenges come from, what the barriers are and how we can unpick them. Obviously, money is one thing, but do we understand the broader strategic landscape of Scotland’s supply chain? I am thinking in broad terms about our renewables industry—it is about the broader strategic picture, not just the specific links.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (North-east and Moray)
Meeting date: 15 November 2023
Maggie Chapman
You talked about mitigations and a balance. I suppose that the argument that some in Torry would make is that they have already been compromised for 50 years, through losing houses and community facilities. There is not really a mitigation for losing the last remaining green space in the area—once it has gone, it has gone. There is also the issue of the wetlands there. How can we be genuine in our intention to have a just transition when we know that life expectancy in Torry can be up to 10 years lower than is the case just across the river, and that the loss of green space is about more than just trees, grass and wetlands; it is about supporting a genuinely healthy community? How do you see those mitigations making up for the potential destruction of the last remaining green space?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (North-east and Moray)
Meeting date: 15 November 2023
Maggie Chapman
That is helpful. You mentioned 1,000 companies that Scottish Enterprise wants to work with. How many of those are not in the energy sector?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Maggie Chapman
Thanks. I will come back in later.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Maggie Chapman
Thanks for teasing that out—that is really helpful. I will leave it there.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Maggie Chapman
That is helpful. You speak very clearly from the point of view of the consumer, who is usually distressed or in difficulty. Is a single system the only way of dealing with that complexity from the point of view of the consumer?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Maggie Chapman
I will come to Colin Bell. Thinking about the tribunal process and its focus on practitioners, do you see challenges around the potential for conflict of interest in the connection between the work of the tribunal, as proposed by the bill, and your membership or the cases that you would deliberate on?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Maggie Chapman
Good morning, panel. Thank you for being here this morning. I want to take us into the realm of complaints and complaint handling and how we can tackle some of the issues that you have highlighted in your remarks.
Neil Stevenson talked very clearly about a compromise between consumers and practitioners. Will you say a little more about the issues that are currently faced in terms of complexity and lack of flexibility?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Maggie Chapman
That is really helpful. Thank you. I will come to Rosemary Agnew on the same issue—the questions of complexity and lack of flexibility, and the impacts that the bill could have to mitigate those.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Maggie Chapman
That is helpful.
In your opening remarks, you spoke about the important principles of transparency, public confidence and so on, and you also talked about natural justice. Do you see the proposals in the bill as having those different routes? I am talking about the balance between consumer and practitioner interests again. Do you see any compromise—in fact, “compromise” is maybe not the right word. Do you see any challenge to natural justice with people having these different avenues, and is there an alternative model that you would have liked to have seen in the bill but is not included?
