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 862 contributions
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Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “NHS in Scotland 2022”
Meeting date: 4 May 2023
Craig Hoy
That is a long-term sustainability issue. In relation to the shorter term, the leaked draft minutes of a meeting of NHS board chiefs in September last year identified a potential £1 billion black hole in the finances of the NHS in Scotland. The minutes of that meeting of NHS bosses stated that they had almost been given the green light to think the unthinkable about the foundations of the NHS in Scotland, with the wealthy potentially paying for their treatment in a two-tier NHS. Is that the kind of discussion that is taking place in NHS Scotland?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “NHS in Scotland 2022”
Meeting date: 4 May 2023
Craig Hoy
We know, from recently released data, that there has been a 73 per cent increase in the number of Scots electing to go private for some treatments. What would you, as NHS Scotland chief executive, advise me to do if I was 80 and in pain, immobile and suffering from social isolation because I required a hip replacement and I had the means to pay for it?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “NHS in Scotland 2022”
Meeting date: 4 May 2023
Craig Hoy
That is fine. We have talked about financial sustainability in the NHS, and you have identified reform and innovation as being critical to the long-term sustainability of the NHS in Scotland. Clearly, there was the meeting at which there was blue-sky thinking. At some point, we need to engage the public on what healthcare will look like in Scotland over the next five, 10, 15, 25 and 50 years and the timetable for that. How do you intend to engage with the nation and have that conversation about our national health service?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “NHS in Scotland 2022”
Meeting date: 4 May 2023
Craig Hoy
Okay.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “NHS in Scotland 2022”
Meeting date: 4 May 2023
Craig Hoy
The Audit Scotland report identifies that the creation of the national care service requires
“a significant unknown financial commitment to be met from the Scottish Government’s health and social care budget.”
As you are aware, ministers have paused stage 1 of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. Does that have any financial implications, in this year or in future years, for the health and social care budget in Scotland overall?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “NHS in Scotland 2022”
Meeting date: 4 May 2023
Craig Hoy
The SFC estimates that projected spending on health in Scotland will rise from a third of all spend to 50 per cent within 50 years. Do you recognise that figure? What conversations are you having with ministers about the model of healthcare in Scotland, given that projected shift in spending?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Craig Hoy
When they were asked about what has gone wrong and the shortcomings and misgivings, the Scottish Government and the former First Minister said that we should leave all that to one side because, ultimately, they have saved the yard and the jobs there. In light of what you have said, is it premature to say that the yard has a safe, long-term future?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Craig Hoy
When we visited the yard, some of the workers who had been there from the get-go said that, at various stages, they could liken the situation to a gravy train running through the middle of the yard, because the people who were doing the work were not necessarily being rewarded but, at various points, people in senior management certainly were. That gave us some cause for concern. Obviously, it appears that the issue of pay is now being addressed satisfactorily. Are there any other areas, such as expenses or the use of contractors or third-party agencies, that could give you cause for concern in the future or have you adequately looked into all other areas of potential expenditure?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Craig Hoy
Mr Coffey asked about the bonus payments. Paragraph 26 of the report confirms that the
“Framework Agreement includes an overall framework for pay”
but that that
“was not formally agreed until March 2022”,
which was obviously
“after bonus payments were approved.”
Given that FMPG came into public ownership in November 2019, why do you think that it took so long to establish that vital framework for pay?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Craig Hoy
Mr Boyle, you have mentioned that the language was somewhat opaque around the issue of the pay policy. You said that pay should be
“broadly consistent with the provisions of”
Scottish Government
“pay policy”,
and that
“Any significant deviations will require further approval.”
In February 2023, the Scottish Government provided clarification on those requirements. Can you provide further detail on what those clarifications were, and whether you are confident with the steps that the Scottish Government has subsequently taken?
