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 1808 contributions
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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Martin Whitfield
We can see you talking, but we cannot hear you. I will pass over to Paul McLennan to ask his questions, and the broadcasting team will get back to us about your connection. I am sorry about that.
You are up sooner than we thought, Paul. Over to you.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Martin Whitfield
You mentioned your annual reports, but what would be the advantages of placing annual planning and reporting requirements on the Scottish Government? Would that not be too onerous?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Martin Whitfield
As part of spreading the understanding of board roles across Scotland’s civic society and beyond, an annual publication will always give the advantage of press interest in these events. If people understood more of what the roles on boards were, perhaps we would see a wider pool of people putting themselves forward. Is that fair?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Martin Whitfield
Do you feel that the criticism of being overprescriptive is unfair because, within its own confines, the code allows for innovative thinking? As you say, the approach, which is based on the very foundations of the code, is about getting the right person in the right place, and the code would allow that to happen.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Martin Whitfield
I am grateful for that comment. Are you back with us, Bob?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland
Meeting date: 9 September 2021
Martin Whitfield
So it is in relation to those very specific areas that committees involve themselves in.
You have talked about the very small pool in which people go fishing for board members. Are you confident that the revised code can break that dam or widen the pool?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Interests
Meeting date: 22 June 2021
Martin Whitfield
I have no relevant interests to declare.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Cross-Party Groups
Meeting date: 22 June 2021
Martin Whitfield
I like committees that move this fast.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Legacy Paper
Meeting date: 22 June 2021
Martin Whitfield
We move to a discussion about the legacy paper. I see that Alexander Stewart would like to comment on it.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Convener
Meeting date: 22 June 2021
Martin Whitfield
I thank Alexander Stewart for opening the meeting and for bringing to the chair not just his age but his vast experience of committees in the past. I welcome all the members who are new to the Parliament, such as Paul McLennan and me, as well as those who have—shall we say?—a few more years of experience. We will look to them for guidance in the committee’s work.
In my view, this is a very important and powerful committee, which has a huge responsibility to the Parliament and the people of Scotland. From the outset, I wish to put on public record my recognition of the lack of gender balance on the committee, which has occurred in the process of creating the membership of the committee rather than as the act or intention of any of its members. With the permission of members, I intend to write to the Parliamentary Bureau about that matter and raise it at the Conveners Group as a matter of urgency. The effect of the situation that we find ourselves in might directly affect aspects of the committee’s responsibility, particularly with regard to standing orders rules 6.4.1(b) and (d). I have every confidence in each member of the committee, but I am concerned that, in fulfilling our responsibilities, we will not be able to carry the confidence of those whom we serve or who seek to rely on the committee. I hope that the members of the committee are in agreement with that action and I am happy to discuss it in more detail when we turn to our programme of work later.
