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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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Thank you, Tess, for that impassioned address. In view of the submissions that we have received and the evidence from Tess White, do colleagues have any suggestions as to how we might proceed?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Jackson Carlaw
We will keep the petition open on that basis and pursue the actions as suggested.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Jackson Carlaw
PE2035, to recognise legal control of generalist predators as a conservation act, a petition on which we took evidence recently. It was lodged by Alex Hogg on behalf of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association.
The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to officially recognise legal control of abundant generalist predators as an act of conservation to help ground-nesting birds in Scotland. Members will recall our meeting with Mr Hogg, who called for a ministerial statement recognising predator control and the value of gamekeepers in addressing the biodiversity crisis. He also suggested ways that the Scottish Government could actively support predator control activity.
In the light of the evidence that we heard from Mr Hogg, do colleagues have any suggestions as to how we should proceed?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Thank you. This is our first consideration of the petition, and it may well be that there is further evidence that we would want to take and other views that we would want to hear. Do colleagues have any suggestions for action?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Item 3 is consideration of new petitions. To those who might be watching our proceedings because this is the first consideration of their petition, I say that, ahead of the consideration of any new petition, we seek a view from the Scottish Government, because otherwise that would be the first thing that we would do.
We also receive a briefing from the Scottish Parliament’s independent research body, SPICe. I thank everybody in SPICe for the work that they do on behalf of the committee. Most committees draw on the experience and advice of SPICe on core subjects so that they can follow a clear narrative path. The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee’s varied agenda means that we go to SPICe with the broadest possible diet of requests for supporting information and the committee members are grateful for the detailed briefings that we receive, particularly when we are taking evidence on a new petition.
The first of the new petitions is on familiar territory, given the conversation that we had a moment ago. PE2066, lodged by Lewis McMartin, calls on the Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to treat vapes and e-cigarettes in the same way as we treat tobacco and cigarettes by banning the brightly coloured packaging and contents and/or removing the devices from public display so that they are only available from behind customer service counters, and by preventing special offers that promote the sale of multiple units for a cheaper price.
The petition notes the legislation that was passed in 2010 to prohibit the display of tobacco and smoking-related products and suggests that, if vapes and e-cigarettes are to be sold as tools for smoking cessation, they should be tobacco flavoured. As noted in the SPICe briefing, the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016 restricts the marketing, advertising and sale of vaping products. The act also gives Scottish ministers powers over restricting or prohibiting displays and promotions of nicotine vapour products. However, those powers have yet to be exercised.
As I did during our consideration of the related petition a moment ago, I draw members’ attention to the ministerial statement that was provided to Parliament on 26 March that updated us on the Scottish Government working towards a tobacco-free Scotland by 2034 and tackling youth vaping. The statement also mentioned the introduction of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to the UK Parliament that would give ministers the power to regulate retail displays of vapes and other nicotine products, as well as extending existing provisions on the regulation and distribution of nicotine products.
There is a lot to digest in that. Do members have any comments or suggestions in the light of all that about what action might be appropriate?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Jackson Carlaw
As there are no other suggestions, does the committee agree to proceed on that basis?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Jackson Carlaw
We will keep the petition open, and we will begin our inquiry. I thank Jackie Baillie again for her participation.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Jackson Carlaw
I am quite happy to try to establish what information exists on the number of such occurrences.
That concludes the public part of our meeting. We will meet again in public on 1 May. We move into private session to consider items 4 and 5.
11:42 Meeting continued in private until 12:03.Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Jackson Carlaw
We expect Fergus Ewing to join us shortly, so there is no apology there.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Good morning, and welcome to the sixth meeting in 2024 of the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee. I begin by thanking my deputy convener, David Torrance, for convening the previous meeting of the committee, which had quite a packed agenda of engagement and evidence taking. I am grateful to him.
Our first item is the customary one to agree on whether to take business in private. Under items 4 and 5, we will consider the evidence that we will hear this morning. Do colleagues agree to take those items in private?
Members indicated agreement.
