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 1956 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee
“Higher History Review 2024”
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Douglas Ross
Let us get into the “Understanding standards” sessions, which I mentioned in my opening questions. I have received quite a lot of correspondence about them over the weekend and earlier this week.
I want to get this right in my head. The SQA sent out information to the effect that it was using those events as one of three additional things that it would take forward to ensure that more support and resources were available into the new year for teachers and lecturers who are preparing candidates for higher history in 2025.
In today’s evidence session, we have been looking back a lot, but we are now just months away from this year’s cohort going through the exam process. Some parents are raising with me concerns that the problems of last year’s exam have not been resolved, so they are worried about this year’s cohort.
As I understand it, the “Understanding standards” sessions have not gone down particularly well. It has been raised with me that not everyone could get to the first of the two sessions, and some of the important issues that were raised at session 1 were not repeated at session 2. Therefore, there is a mixture of people who have the information and people who do not. Worryingly, information that was promised as part of the sessions has still not been made available some time later.
Is that a fair appraisal of teachers’ concerns? They went along to the events in good faith. Another one is scheduled, I think—
Education, Children and Young People Committee
“Higher History Review 2024”
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Douglas Ross
Okay. As I said, I find that concerning. We will hear what other members think. We will come back to those points, but I will now bring in Ross Greer.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
“Higher History Review 2024”
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Douglas Ross
So you have previously done a survey, which the SQA looked at, and it then asked you not to publish it.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
“Higher History Review 2024”
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Douglas Ross
Did she engage?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
“Higher History Review 2024”
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Douglas Ross
The qualifications manager who, for many months, has been heavily involved in that issue and the exam issues was simply listening rather than trying to put across what she and members of her team would seek to give you to help you with your students.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
“Higher History Review 2024”
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Douglas Ross
We have spoken a bit about culture. Kirsty MacDonald mentioned it in her opening statement, and Rebecca Hanna bravely told us of her experience—I am very grateful to you for sharing that. Culture comes up time and again, including in emails that I have received, and you mentioned it just now. Is there a culture problem in the SQA? If you do not want to answer, do you feel that you cannot answer? We could draw our own assumptions from that.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
“Higher History Review 2024”
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Douglas Ross
Do you have a timescale for that?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
“Higher History Review 2024”
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Douglas Ross
Thank you very much. I know that this might not have been the easiest session, given what you have had to present to us, and I understand the relationships that you have with your fellow history teachers and people working within the SQA.
However, your evidence was extremely fair and balanced—I also think that it is damning for the SQA. Some of what we have heard today should make for extremely uncomfortable listening for those who are at the very top of the SQA, and I have to say—as other members have—that I am deeply alarmed and concerned if elements of your survey that are critical of the culture within the SQA continue to be hidden from wider public view. We have to know why those at the top of the SQA are seeking to do that.
Again, I thank all of you for your time. I know that we have overrun, so I want to thank Kirsty MacDonald’s colleagues at school, who stepped in to allow her to stay with us a bit longer. I thank Andy Johnston and Rebecca Hanna for coming to Parliament, too.
This is an issue that the committee has taken a keen interest in. I know that the cabinet secretary will be following it up, as Kirsty MacDonald has said, but on behalf of the committee members, I genuinely thank you for your time and your evidence.
12:35 Meeting continued in private until 13:01.Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Youth Parliament
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Douglas Ross
Good morning, and welcome to the third meeting in 2025 of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. We have received apologies from Bill Kidd.
The first item on our agenda is an evidence session with members of the Scottish Youth Parliament. We will hear from Ellie Craig, who is chair of the SYP and member for Glasgow Cathcart; Beinn Grant, who is member of the Scottish Youth Parliament for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire; Beau Johnston, who is MSYP for Edinburgh Central; Sophie Kerrigan, who is deputy convener of the SYP education and lifelong learning committee and MSYP for Stirling; and Jordana Rae, who is convener of the SYP education and lifelong learning committee and MSYP for Cowdenbeath. I warmly welcome you all to the Scottish Parliament and to our committee. We are looking forward to hearing your views and opinions and your responses to our questions.
Ellie, I know that you would like to make an opening statement.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Youth Parliament
Meeting date: 22 January 2025
Douglas Ross
That is an excellent opening statement, and I know that it covers a lot of areas that members want to come in on.
How do you set your priorities for the SYP and for the education and lifelong learning committee for the year ahead? How does that work? How do you form the views of the members and set your priorities for the year ahead?
