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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Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Kenneth Gibson
It was going to be Paul Bradley actually.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Kenneth Gibson
I am going to bring Amy Woodhouse in, but leadership was something that I was going to come to you next on, because you said in your submission:
“There needs to be a consistent commitment to and leadership of the NPF throughout the Scottish Government and other public bodies that delivers policy coherence across strategies, plans, frameworks, and activities.”
Have you identified a significant gap in that regard?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Kenneth Gibson
I agree with that. If I have to do a piece of work and I have been given a deadline of Friday, I will do it on Thursday. If the deadline is the following Monday, I will do it on Sunday. If there is no deadline, there is always something else to fill my time. I do think that that is an issue. With the best will in the world, we always have other priorities, some of which are time driven.
I said that I would go back to Amy Woodhouse. In your submission, you say:
“We believe there is scope for funding to be more closely aligned to the national outcomes, and we would welcome the opportunity for discussion about how this could be taken forward appropriately.”
How can it be taken forward? You talk about that in your submission, but, rather than read it out, I will let you cover that ground.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Kenneth Gibson
I think that everyone on the committee supports multiyear funding, if it can be delivered, because the current situation is extremely wasteful, as has been pointed out. People are doing an excellent job, but, in the run-up to the end of the financial year, they are wondering whether they should be applying for a job elsewhere, because their current funding might not be renewed. That is an important point, and it is something that we have taken on board.
Four people are keen to speak, and I will take them in order. Daniel Johnson will be followed by Michelle Thomson.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Kenneth Gibson
I am quite happy for you to mention that. We are here to hear your views and opinions and that of your organisation, and to share it with others. There are quite a lot of common threads here. For example, Jamie Livingstone’s submission says:
“As a non-public body, we are not held to account for how our actions and decisions impact on the National Outcomes.”
In his submission, Keith Robson has expanded on that point:
“Our core funding is not currently directly contingent upon demonstrating our contribution to the delivery of the National Outcomes as we report using the Outcome Agreement with the SFC which is our guiding document. None of the additional funding we receive through the National Training Transition Fund, Upskilling Fund, Universities Innovation Fund and Workforce Development Fund is contingent upon demonstrating a contribution to the delivery of the National Outcomes.”
Should it be?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Kenneth Gibson
Absolutely.
I am keen for our guests to make any last-minute points. You do not have to make any final points, but if there is anything that you think that we have not touched on that we should have touched on, now is your opportunity. I will also give my MSP colleagues the same opportunity.
I will not go round the table one by one; it is up to our guests to let me know if they have any points to make. You do not have to if you do not wish to. Does anyone want to make any final points?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Kenneth Gibson
Before I let in Douglas Lumsden and Vicki Bibby, I want to go to Keith Robson. You said in your written submission that you want to avoid
“significant additional reporting burdens at a time when our core funding is failing to match rising costs.”
I have noticed that you are writing things down. Do you agree with Jamie Livingstone, or do you feel that that is an area of disagreement? What do you feel about data and reporting?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Kenneth Gibson
We would have to start again and reinvent the wheel.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Kenneth Gibson
That would be very helpful. Does anyone else have anything that they want to say? As would be said at an auction, going, going, gone.
I thank everyone for their contributions, which will be extremely helpful to our future deliberations. Once we have completed our evidence taking, we will work to put together a report, which you will all be able to access.
Our business planning day has been confirmed for 1 September. We have completed all our work for today, so no one has to stay behind. I thank everyone very much.
Meeting closed at 12:26.Finance and Public Administration Committee
National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Kenneth Gibson
Good morning and welcome to the 16th meeting in 2022 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee.
Before we start, I put on record the committee’s thanks to members of the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, who visited us here at Holyrood yesterday. We had a very productive discussion on the work and approaches of our respective committees in relation to public administration, and it was fascinating for those of us who were here to see how in parallel we are with that committee with regard to our experiences and the challenges ahead of us.
Today, we continue our evidence gathering for our national performance framework: ambitions into action inquiry. I welcome to the meeting our first panel of witnesses: Mirren Kelly, chief officer, local government finance, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities; and Tim Kendrick, community manager, development, Fife Council. First of all, I would like to thank you for your excellent written submissions. Both were interesting and have certainly given the committee food for thought.
I will go straight to questions. Mirren, the first paragraph of your submission says:
“COSLA would further welcome a future opportunity ... to provide oral evidence to the Committee on some of the wider aspects concerning the Ambitions into Action Inquiry and expand on experience to date.”
Let us kick off with that, then.
