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 1824 contributions
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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Committee Effectiveness
Meeting date: 29 February 2024
Martin Whitfield
Johann Lamont, you experienced those first five sessions of Parliament. Did you feel that, after session 1—when, in essence, everyone was desperate to make the unicameral system work and to acknowledge the value of committees—party politics came into committees more? Did you notice that change, or is it something that is maybe more indicative of certain committees at certain times?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Committee Effectiveness
Meeting date: 29 February 2024
Martin Whitfield
As interesting as this discussion is, I am very conscious of the time and there is still another member to bring in.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Committee Effectiveness
Meeting date: 29 February 2024
Martin Whitfield
I will draw a line under that discussion, but it is interesting that, in the 25th year of the Scottish Parliament, such discussions are very much worth while and need to take place.
That said, I will drag us back to the issue of committees. I look to Ivan McKee to see whether there is anything that he would like to cover as we move to the final part of the session.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Martin Whitfield
Thank you, David. Before I leap in, I put on record my and the committee’s thanks to your predecessor, Daren Fitzhenry, who was the principal author of the annual report. It is interesting that, in his opening remarks in the annual report, he commented:
“It has been a privilege as well as a pleasure to be at the helm over the past six years, and particularly to work with such an excellent team.”
The team obviously has its commissioners very well trained, but that reflects your role as the head of a team, so I thank Daren for the help and assistance that he gave to the committee, his openness towards us and, more importantly, his role as Scottish Information Commissioner over the previous period.
David, you set out your reflections on your first few weeks in the role. We will obviously explore your view of where freedom of information is in Scotland. It is based on a platform that is in a good place, but we seek improvement. You mentioned your four-year strategic plan, which is due to be laid this year, but you also mentioned revisiting it next year. Do you intend to extend it beyond 2028 to 2029, or will you consider a three-year plan once you have a better understanding of the situation and have had the opportunity to input your priorities?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Martin Whitfield
That is helpful—thank you. I am now going to throw you at the mercy of the committee.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Martin Whitfield
It would be helpful to address—I will add the word “carefully”—the intervention with regard to the Scottish Government. I am aware that you sent a letter on 7 February, in which you sought additional information. We are still within the period for that information to be provided—I think that it expires next Thursday or Friday. At this stage, you do not have the relevant information. Have you received any confirmation that the information can be provided by your requested date, or are you worried that it might not appear?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Martin Whitfield
Clearly, the question of legislation is something that we will return to.
I thank you, David, and your staff for coming to the meeting this morning. You have survived it, and we will, no doubt, see you again. If you would like to add anything, please feel free to write to the clerks in the normal way.
I now close the public part of the meeting.
10:58 Meeting continued in private until 11:18.Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Martin Whitfield
I am grateful.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Martin Whitfield
You are monitoring the response rate, which is what the target is for, and SEPA’s rate is above that. You have talked about the access to information regime. Are you satisfied that that is as far along the pathway as it should be?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Martin Whitfield
That is helpful.
In relation to intervention activity, the report outlines concerns that your ability to intervene has been restricted because of resources and so on. Can you give the committee a short explanation of how those concerns came about? It is probably more important to emphasise that you want your intervention capacity to be back to where you would hope it to be.
