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 787 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Healthcare in Remote and Rural Areas
Meeting date: 19 December 2023
Tess White
Finally, you have used the phrase “geographic narcissism”, which I have not heard before. Do you want to say a couple more words about it? It is quite a loaded term.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Healthcare in Remote and Rural Areas
Meeting date: 19 December 2023
Tess White
Thank you, convener.
Dr Kennedy, we know that patient numbers in remote and rural areas can change significantly. The RPS has said that when cruise ships come into ports, the population can go up by as much as a third. You are based in Inverness, and I have been highlighting the example of Braemar. How is the impact of tourism taken into account in funding and workforce planning?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Healthcare in Remote and Rural Areas
Meeting date: 19 December 2023
Tess White
Thank you. Convener, would you like me to cover demographic challenges now?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scottish Football Association
Meeting date: 19 December 2023
Tess White
I am aware that the SPFL Trust runs mental health training for all SPFL clubs, but there is a view that more needs to be done. Do you monitor how many people a year go through that mental health training?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scottish Football Association
Meeting date: 19 December 2023
Tess White
Performance is really important and is a high priority, but 99 per cent of players do not become professionals. What evidence is there that the SFA’s 2019 wellbeing and protection strategy has been a success and that children’s wellbeing and safety are being prioritised?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scottish Football Association
Meeting date: 19 December 2023
Tess White
That is great.
I have a final question. There is evidence that children’s health and safety are at risk in the grass-roots football environment and that the situation has been like that since football began. What new approaches is the SFA exploring in order to eradicate the culture of shouting and bullying that children can be exposed to by both coaches and parents?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scottish Football Association
Meeting date: 19 December 2023
Tess White
I have one final question. We recently conducted an extensive inquiry into female participation in sport and physical activity. Have you reviewed that report and discussed it with your board?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scottish Football Association
Meeting date: 19 December 2023
Tess White
That partly answers my question, which was more about the inquiry than about football. However, because football is so important in Scotland, it provides a way to build on the work. The reason why I mention the inquiry is to ask you if you can be a champion for its findings, so that it does not get left on a shelf. Thank you.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Healthcare in Remote and Rural Areas
Meeting date: 19 December 2023
Tess White
Earlier, you talked about there being much greater frailty. You know of the example from the Highlands and Islands, and from Inverness, in particular, and I would also highlight the fact that, in Aberdeenshire, the ageing population will be increasing by around 28 per cent over the next seven years. That is huge. The question is: how will such steep increases be factored into budgets, forecasting and workforce planning?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Healthcare in Remote and Rural Areas
Meeting date: 19 December 2023
Tess White
Dr Kennedy, you raised the issue of the closure of care homes. You said:
“The closure of care homes and the ongoing recruitment struggles in the care sector have created a crisis.”
You gave the example of Broadford hospital, which was left in limbo. In Aberdeenshire, the closure of smaller care homes in rural areas causes a huge issue with delayed discharges. Will you say a bit more about that, please?
