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 864 contributions
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Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 6 October 2022
Alasdair Allan
I will resist the temptation to talk about a specific building, cabinet secretary, as we have already corresponded on it.
On the issues that you are raising with regard to Historic Environment Scotland, what is your expectation of the extent to which those communities to whom historic buildings that might not be open are still important should be involved and kept aware of what is going on?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 6 October 2022
Alasdair Allan
My other question is about a subject that we have touched on regularly in the committee and which you have just alluded to, Mr Munro. I will address the question to Councillor Heddle and Mr Booth. On wellbeing, some of you have mentioned the issue of warm spaces. I do not pretend that the function of culture, as practised or promoted by local government or other agencies, is simply to provide warm spaces. However, you have acknowledged the pressure that you will face to provide such facilities. Will both of you say a bit more about how that will be worked into what you do?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 6 October 2022
Alasdair Allan
Iain Munro, you have reflected on some of the budget pressures that the whole public sector undoubtedly faces. However, it should also be noted that the Scottish Government has seen £1.7 billion disappear out of its budget as a result of inflation.
I do not want to take away from the pressures that you have described, but I am curious to know whether you think that there is anything to be learned from the experience of the pandemic. You rightly say that the situation now is very different and that the pressures are perhaps even greater, but I think that the committee has had some evidence or comment that, during the pandemic, Creative Scotland went to some length to streamline its application process. I realise that we cannot make direct comparisons, but can anything be learned from the experience of the pandemic in dealing with the current inflationary emergency?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Alasdair Allan
To be honest, convener, my points have been raised.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Alasdair Allan
I second that.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Alasdair Allan
Not only do different local authorities have different resources available to them, but individual communities and islands within local authority areas have varying opportunities to make their voices heard. How do you manage to hear the diversity of voices from different islands within local authority areas?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Alasdair Allan
You have alluded to some of the budgetary pressures that the Scottish Government is facing. We know about the impact of inflation on the budget in real terms—I understand that the reduction is 5.2 per cent. What rationale are you using in your own budget to cope with that situation and prioritise things?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Alasdair Allan
In that case, does the Government have its own source of information about the kind of inflationary pressures that are on rural and agricultural businesses? You have alluded to that, but how has that information shaped or determined what you have done in the budget for your portfolio?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Alasdair Allan
I am tempted to say that Scotland has two Governments but only one of them is elected.
How does having money spent on those priorities—money that, until now, has always been regarded as devolved money—impact on the work of the Scottish Government?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
BBC Annual Report and Accounts
Meeting date: 29 September 2022
Alasdair Allan
That was very helpful.
A question that has previously been raised is about what you are doing to encourage and promote new writing in portraying Scotland—or, indeed, in portraying anything—to give backbone to the programmes that you are talking about. I am curious to know what is being done in that respect.
