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.
Criathragan Hide all filters
Displaying 1524 contributions
|
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Standards Scotland
Meeting date: 25 October 2022
Fiona Hyslop
How will you approach monitoring the Scottish Government’s implementation of international obligations and its use of the keeping pace power? What do you see as the key risks to your ability to do that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Standards Scotland
Meeting date: 25 October 2022
Fiona Hyslop
What does Environmental Standards Scotland see its relationship with this committee as being? What would you like it to be? How can we work well together to make sure that the key issues that affect Scotland’s environmental standards are addressed? What would an ideal relationship with the committee look like for you?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Trade (Australia and New Zealand) Bill
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Fiona Hyslop
There is an interplay between this LCM and the one that we have been considering on the Procurement Bill. My colleagues might not want to dwell on the politics of this, but the issue is that, as far as Scottish suppliers are concerned, there is not much gain and, indeed, there is potential vulnerability from this agreement. The issue is about procurement. In a practical sense, the UK Government is clearly responsible for the trade agreements, but the broad powers set out in the Procurement Bill might, in trying to make sure that the trade agreement goes through, undermine Scottish suppliers in comparison with, for example, their New Zealand counterparts. If, under the Procurement Bill, broad procurement powers are given to the UK Government with regard to, say, schools accessing lamb for school meals, that might undermine what we might want to do in Scotland to ensure that local authorities can access and procure local produce to help with sustainability.
I am just trying to make the implications more real. Nobody is disputing the UK Government’s right to do these trade agreements; indeed, it might want to add subsequent ones into the legislation. The issue, primarily, is the interplay with the broad powers of the procurement legislation. Am I correct in my understanding of that? If I am incorrect in thinking that the procurement of Scottish produce for Scottish schools might be undermined by the procurement legislation, please correct me.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Fiona Hyslop
You have just asked my question, convener.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Fiona Hyslop
If it reassures you, the fact that the Economy and Fair Work Committee is focusing on tourism for a second time perhaps reflects our understanding that it is a national industry that is one of the few that reaches all parts of Scotland.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Procurement Bill
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Fiona Hyslop
What amendments do you want to see to enable the LCM to be consented to? What changes would you need to see to the bill for you to be able to bring forward an LCM for consent, particularly in relation to cross-border arrangements?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Procurement Bill
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Do we know what the volume is of UK reserved bodies’ procurement in Scotland?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Procurement Bill
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Fiona Hyslop
That would be interesting to know, if you have that information to share with the committee. I am aware that it is not specific to the area.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Procurement Bill
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Fiona Hyslop
On the importance of procurement post EU exit, it has been recognised by everybody that there had to be legislation put in place. In January 2022, the UK and devolved Governments published the common framework on procurement, which this committee recognised was a practical and commonsense way forward. However, the Scottish Government notes in its LCM that it has not been able to fully address its concerns with the Procurement Bill. How has the common framework been operating in practice? Everybody was looking to that as being the practical means by which there could be that sensible, commonsense co-operation.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Procurement Bill
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Do you think that this is more accidental mission creep as opposed to deliberate power grab? I am trying to be generous here. There are degrees of disagreement with LCMs. The Infrastructure Bank Bill looks more straightforward, but this one is so important because it is about procurement and we need to get it right. Is there something that you can try to resolve at ministerial level to get us back on track with the common framework agreement?
