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 1621 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 31 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you. It is important to point out that distinction. From now on, we will refer to you as the independent ferries community board.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 31 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you very much. If you can leave that with us as part of our evidence, that will be very helpful.
You are giving us challenges as well, because you are taking forward the community voice to inform the islands connectivity plan. We, as your Parliament and as the committee that is responsible for transport, want to make sure that a light is shone on that area so that it can be fundamentally different. Hopefully, between us, taking things from different angles, we can shape the islands connectivity plan. We very much appreciate the work that you have done to date as volunteers.
We recognise that the community board is made up of volunteers and that you have an important task and responsibility. To do that work as volunteers is something that, naturally, we should recognise, so thank you very much for what you are doing.
Kirsty, thank you for joining us. Angus Duncan Campbell, I hope that you get back at some point—we can hear the howls of the wind outside. Thank you very much for taking part and sharing your views. That concludes the public part of our meeting. We now go into private session.
12:15 Meeting continued in private until 12:36.Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 31 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
That point was well made by users and communities during our inquiry visits, particularly in the Western Isles.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 31 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
You do that on a continuous basis?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 31 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Not when I do not have my long-distance glasses on. [Laughter.] If you can leave that with us, that will be helpful.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 25 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
I want to ask Ashley Ryan about partnership working. Obviously, we understand that it is a complex landscape, and I very much appreciate what you have said. I want to understand some of the key partnerships, what is successful and where there are challenges. If we are to move the agenda on, what do we need to work on?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 25 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Other colleagues might go into Placebase, the different geographies and their impact. I was struck by what you said about the aspirations of young people. In terms of partnership, developing the young workforce is a key issue in the employability sector generally. Can anything more be done for young people in school? Early preparation was mentioned, and it is about what you can do as opposed to what you cannot do. Is that partnership strong enough, or does something more need to be done for young people with disabilities in school, working with Developing the Young Workforce?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 25 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
That is a helpful insight.
I would like to ask Emma Congreve about the employment economics of the issue. Obviously, there is a moral responsibility to ensure that everybody can take part in the workforce, but there is also an economic benefit to employers. In a tight labour market, retention of staff is key. Any data about retention rates of people with disabilities in the workplace would help that argument. There is also the issue of diversity. Customers want to buy from companies that look like them, and there is a need to recognise that wider perspective.
Are we seeing shifts in the understanding of employers of the benefits of employing people with disabilities? Is there an issue about the economic imperative in an ageing workforce in which more older people will be in the workforce, with people developing disabilities as they get older? Is that where the thinking needs to be, particularly in a Scottish context? Is there anything that we can learn from the international context about how different countries view this issue from a clear economic perspective?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 25 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Ashley, is there anything that you want to add?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 25 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
I would like to follow up on that. The £53 million was intended as additional funding, so nobody’s funding was actually cut, but do you think that the disruption of not knowing whether it was coming may have delayed some of the regular contracts? I am trying to get a sense of what actually happened and the impact of it.
