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 2321 contributions
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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Willie Coffey
That was quite helpful. Thanks for that.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax Freeze
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Willie Coffey
Good morning again, minister.
Tom, you mentioned that the council tax freeze that was announced is just one part of the broader and wider agreement made at Verity house, and I want to pick out what your views are on continuing to develop discussions with COSLA in that respect. We know that COSLA as a body has not yet set out its view to us, which is why it is not here today. Can you describe the conversations that are going on with COSLA? You mentioned that the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister are in discussion with the organisation. From your perspective, how is that progressing in terms of the wider Verity house approach?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Willie Coffey
Is it correct to say, though, that the bill allows local authorities to recoup their administration costs?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax Freeze
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Willie Coffey
The council tax freeze is bound to have an impact on the fiscal framework, but we know that we will not see that before the budget. Has the Government done any analysis, even at this early stage, of the potential impact of the freeze on that framework?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Willie Coffey
Mirren, do you want to come in on that question?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Willie Coffey
You have probably also heard some conversation about the financial memorandum and the business and regulatory impact assessment and whether they are still appropriate or whether they need to be updated and revised because they were prepared some years ago. Do you have a view on that?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Willie Coffey
Do you have any view on that, Mirren? [Interruption.] You were mute there, but I think that you said no.
I have a final query for Councillor Macgregor. We have been talking about flexibility throughout this discussion and debate. Some folk say that it is localism for localism’s sake, but other folk say that it is very important that local authorities have the powers and the flexibility to do things that best suit local circumstances. What does COSLA think about the application of flexibility? Should there be rigid rules and guidance, or should there be as much localism as we can possibly put into the system?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Willie Coffey
Is there a risk of confusing visitors with local versions of the scheme? They would go around Scotland and find different systems in different places, and the levy would be different. Some places might have a flat rate and some places might have a percentage rate.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Willie Coffey
Some businesses have said that they might have to reduce the number of bed nights available so that they do not cross the threshold, which sounds as if it runs counter to the aims of the policy. You say that it is down to local authorities to try to manage that but, frankly, I cannot see how they can avoid the issue. VAT is paid on the levy, and that is chargeable and so on.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
Willie Coffey
Hello, everybody.
I wonder whether I can take us back to the earlier discussion of how we reduce mental health inequalities. The Auditor General’s report, which I am sure that you have read, points to certain groups in society, and it is obvious that inequalities in this respect basically reflect the inequalities that we see in society. I am thinking of, for example, people living in deprivation as well as the issues affecting young people, LGBT people, people with learning disabilities and, as we have been hearing today, ethnic minorities.
The funding allocated to the mental health directorate in recent years has gone up significantly. In 2020, it was £130 million a year, and now it is nearly £300 million a year. Where is the money going? Is it not being spent or targeted correctly and appropriately in your opinion? What more do we need to do in that respect?
I would like to start with Dr McDaid, but I would appreciate hearing a brief perspective on the matter from each of our panellists, if that is possible.
