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 1913 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 29 March 2023
Bob Doris
I have one final question. Meg Thomas can come in on this.
I just want you to bring to life how movement restriction conditions could provide some comfort for the victims, who are usually other young people. Are we talking about restrictions from the local high street, if that is where a lot of the offending and risky behaviour has taken place, or from parks or train stations? I hope you can bring to life for us a little what the conditions would be used for, because at the moment it is an abstract concept for the committee. What kind of restrictions are we talking about? What benefits might there be, if information is communicated properly and effectively, for the reassurance of victims?
That is my final question. Meg, you have been very patient.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 29 March 2023
Bob Doris
I see that Sheriff Mackie wants to come in. I am breaking my own rules now, but do you want to add something, Sheriff Mackie? I will take you in a second Meg, if that is okay.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 23 March 2023
Bob Doris
Commissioner, before you move on to the rest of the potential scope of consultation or, indeed, legislation, I will ask about the section 60 code of practice, although I have to admit that I am no expert on it. Maybe I will read it out, because it is in front of me, but I now know that it exists. Is there a need for greater clarity?
Referring to the “Hancock clause” was a glib comment. I have no desire in the slightest to defend Matt Hancock, but I will make a serious point. I can imagine people who are in positions of power wanting to communicate quickly and freely with a range of officials and stakeholders in very short and condensed formats, just for speed. They need to be really careful about what they put on those platforms, because not everything is captured in a text or an abridged WhatsApp message. It is not just about having shining, absolute transparency about what people in power are really thinking; it is also about making sure that people who are in power are very clear about expectations. With that caveat, do we need clarity? Does that code, which I now know exists, need to be clarified or updated?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 23 March 2023
Bob Doris
Thank you for your evidence so far, which has been really helpful.
At the start of your contribution, you mentioned that we are going through a period of change. At some point, you will demit office, and we wish you well for the future when you are no longer in office. It is a day for changes.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 23 March 2023
Bob Doris
I do not want to misinterpret what you are saying, commissioner, but it is almost as though you are saying that the Government and the Parliament should take a considered and almost incremental view of how we can extend FOI on a sector-by-sector basis by considering the implications, getting the balance right in each sector, and implementing changes accordingly rather than looking at everything all at once and trying to legislate in haste. We have to consider the evidence that we have heard this morning, and I do not want to misinterpret or analyse incorrectly the points that you are making.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 23 March 2023
Bob Doris
We are not trying to get rid of you early. [Laughter.] Mr Mountain was suggesting that this is your last day; I was not doing that.
There are other transitions. The Scottish Government has been consulting on changes to freedom of information. A number of changes have been suggested—for example, a change to the number of organisations that are subject to FOI; a change to the use of section 5 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 to add bodies to the list; and the introduction of a gateway clause by which third party organisations that fulfil public functions and currently avoid FOI could be brought into its gambit. There are quite a lot of potential changes. I understand that an update to the section 60 code of practice to provide guidance for informal communications such as those on WhatsApp and whether those should be subject to FOI—what I might refer to as the “Hancock clause”—is also potentially within the scope of the changes.
Quite a lot is within the scope of the consultation. I am not necessarily trying to draw you on your views on those things, commissioner, but did the Government get the scope of the consultation just about right? Do you have any other reflections, not on the Hancock clause in particular, but more generally?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 23 March 2023
Bob Doris
That is incredibly helpful, but I want to be sure that I do not misinterpret that. The current situation feels very process driven. It seems that people say, “I’ve got a policy, I’ve got a document, I’ve got a process. It’s published, it sits there, I’m compliant—tick. Let’s move on and brace ourselves for what requests come in now. We’ve got a policy for how we process those requests” as opposed to turning the whole thing on its head and saying, “We’re an open public body. How are we going to actively publish the information that we think is in the wider public interest to have that transparency?” I want to be sure that I have captured that correctly, because the committee will need to consider the evidence that we have heard this morning.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 23 March 2023
Bob Doris
That is helpful. I apologise for cutting you off in full flow. You were going to talk about the rest of the scope of the consultation.
10:45Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Information Commissioner
Meeting date: 23 March 2023
Bob Doris
That is very helpful. I understand that you made a specific recommendation in relation to the report by the Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee in session 5. You said that you would like to replace the current requirement for a public authority to maintain a publication scheme with a duty to publish information. I am keen to know the difference between those. I know that the duty would be supported by a legally enforceable code of practice. It would be helpful for the committee to know the distinction between the current requirement and a duty and the difference that that would make.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 22 March 2023
Bob Doris
Can I check whether the Lord Advocate’s guidance will be updated?
