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 1487 contributions
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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill
Meeting date: 31 October 2024
Martin Whitfield
Before we begin, I would like to express our thanks to you and your colleagues for your assistance with our evidence taking today. The notice that we gave you was much shorter than what we would normally provide, and your assistance in the matter is deeply appreciated, given the timetabling of the bill.
The purpose of our evidence taking today is to allow the committee to understand a little bit more the operation of the sex offender notification requirements—or SONR—orders under part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and other related orders, in connection with proposed amendments to the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill. It is proposed that individuals subject to such orders would be disqualified from being a candidate or from continuing to hold elected office as a local authority councillor in Scotland or, indeed, as an MSP. The committee has previously expressed its support in principle for such a provision, but we want to ensure that we have a proper understanding of these orders in advance of stage 2 proceedings on this bill.
If it is all right with you, DCI Chisholm, I will invite the committee to put some questions to you on the matter. However, I will exercise my privilege as convener and go first, if that is all right. If you require any further explanation of what our questions mean or, indeed, if you would like the opportunity to consider your answers further and write to us later, I am more than happy for that to happen, given the relatively short notice that you have had and, more importantly, given the significance of this aspect with regard to the bill.
Just to kick off, can you explain the role of Police Scotland and, as I understand it, chief inspectors in relation to the sex offender notification requirements? What happens on a day-to-day basis? Who has responsibility for this matter, and what sorts of orders and individuals do you deal with?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Interests
Meeting date: 31 October 2024
Martin Whitfield
That is excellent—thank you. Once again, welcome back.
I hope that the committee is content for me to write to Oliver Mundell MSP to express both my thanks and the committee’s thanks for his work while he was on the committee.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 31 October 2024
Martin Whitfield
Agenda item 2 is a decision on taking business in private. Does the committee agree to take in private item 4, which is consideration of applications for the role of committee adviser in connection with our inquiry into committee effectiveness, and item 5, which is further consideration of the recommendations of the gender-sensitive audit?
Members indicated agreement.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 31 October 2024
Martin Whitfield
I am grateful.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill
Meeting date: 31 October 2024
Martin Whitfield
That brings us to the substantive part of today’s meeting: agenda item 3, which is an evidence-taking session on the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill. I welcome to the meeting Detective Chief Inspector Craig Chisholm of Police Scotland. Good morning, detective chief inspector.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill
Meeting date: 31 October 2024
Martin Whitfield
Yes, that makes sense. Thank you for that. I see a wonderful letter going to the Scottish Government.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 19 September 2024
Martin Whitfield
Good morning. Welcome all to the 21st meeting in 2024 of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee. I have received apologies from Annie Wells this morning.
Agenda item 1 is to decide whether to take items 2, 3 and 4 in private. Item 2 is consideration of correspondence on the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill from the Minister for Parliamentary Business; item 3 is consideration of correspondence on strengthening net zero scrutiny arrangements; and item 4 is consideration of an update on a meeting with the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. Are members happy to take those items in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 19 September 2024
Martin Whitfield
Excellent.
09:30 Meeting continued in private until 10:22.Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill
Meeting date: 5 September 2024
Martin Whitfield
That is helpful. To echo what the committee has already said, we are in agreement with the basic principle, but the second that we delve into it, we are confronted with more questions than answers. Given the importance of the matter for individual voters’ trust in democracy, it is an important issue to consider.
As there are no further questions on that point, I will turn to the matter of the Electoral Management Board for Scotland. Thank you for your comprehensive coverage of that in your letters. I would like to pick up on a couple of areas in those letters, the first of which relates to the proposed constitution. You have set out the areas that the constitution would need to cover. Is there anything further that would assist the committee with regard to this matter?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 September 2024
Martin Whitfield
That is helpful. To echo what the committee has already said, we are in agreement with the basic principle, but the second that we delve into it, we are confronted with more questions than answers. Given the importance of the matter for individual voters’ trust in democracy, it is an important issue to consider.
As there are no further questions on that point, I will turn to the matter of the Electoral Management Board for Scotland. Thank you for your comprehensive coverage of that in your letters. I would like to pick up on a couple of areas in those letters, the first of which relates to the proposed constitution. You have set out the areas that the constitution would need to cover. Is there anything further that would assist the committee with regard to this matter?
