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 1475 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
I welcome that intervention and whole-heartedly agree, which is why I referred to the challenge that is posed by restricting it to those who have recent experience of undertaking qualifications. That person who stays quiet at the back of the class and knows how to turn in on themselves in order to avoid confronting challenges or being asked difficult questions is the very person who should sit on a learner interest committee, as they can say why it is challenging.
The committee’s format, and the outreach to young people, have to be appropriate. It cannot involve sitting around in a committee room such as the one we are in and saying, “Well, what do you think of it?” That is a challenge, but we have the pedagogical and social skills to interact and engage with young people to get the very best from them. Hopefully, their contribution will be more than just five seconds—it might take longer than that to make it happen, but it is important that we listen to them.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
The requirements relating to regulation of educational qualifications and public sector governance are alternatives in your amendment, rather than a build-on.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
Unusually, at stage 2 proceedings—I will not say uniquely, but it is certainly rare—an opportunity has arisen for consensus on a route forward, if not on a destination. It would be helpful if space for that was created by all of those who have lodged amendments in this group. Does the member agree with that?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
We are perhaps developing a skill at stage 2, which might benefit the whole of the Scottish Parliament. I welcome the proposal, the understanding that the Scottish Government is open to that discussion and the support that Ross Greer offers.
It is a complex picture. There are groups that will feel that they have been deliberately excluded when, in fact, what has occurred has probably been more to do with drafting and concentrating on other groups. The ability to return to look carefully at that is very important.
To go beyond amendment 226, I am very concerned about the framing of the definition in amendment 120—Ross Greer’s other amendment. I do not have a vote, but if I had, I would not be able to support amendment 120 because, notwithstanding the advice that others in this room have received, it poses a fundamental challenge.
However, in respect of the proposal to reconcile amendments 119 and 226, it is certainly sensible to come together with a recognition that children and young people need to be represented on the committee and in an appropriate way. Given the emerging consensus, I will pause on that point.
12:45Education, Children and Young People Committee
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
Your proposed new paragraph (b)(v) contains the phrase “respond appropriately”. What do you envisage as the test of appropriateness? Is it public opinion, or the opinion of committees or Parliament, or the Scottish Government?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
I am grateful—
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
That makes for a much more simplistic platform—although that does not mean that it is not beneficial—on which to build services for all young people who engage with educational establishments, where we can define the duty of care. As Katy Clark has said, that is the minimum standard, and we can look above that. For people in institutions in particular, the proposal makes the playing field far easier to understand, given the various and differing types of students who engage at different stages in their life and at different stages in their development, which I think is very important, too.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
It seems to me that the very strong purpose that sits behind Katy Clark’s amendments also rests in the fact that there are some young people in educational institutions for whom there is already a duty of care, simply because of their age.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
I declare an interest with regard to my former employment in education.
Given the interesting contribution from Ross Greer and the openness from the cabinet secretary about discussions, is this not perhaps a situation in which, if none of the amendments were moved, that would facilitate the reaching of a conclusion at stage 3 that might bring with it the urgency that is seen outside this place to rectify the problem and provide a timetable in which all parties together could perhaps seek a solution?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Education (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Martin Whitfield
The cabinet secretary mentioned the potential challenge if a trade unionist who is also a teacher is on the board. However, the reality is that a number of teachers are members of trade unions. When it comes to conflicts of interest, the amendment explicitly sets out, as I did at the start, that any interest would be declared and taken into account in the decision making.
