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.
Criathragan Hide all filters
Displaying 1425 contributions
|
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
In terms of exemptions, I think that we need more clarity on what “substantial rent arrears” means in law, specifically with regard to where ministers would see that sitting. Is it three months of non-payment of rent, which I think is what I think is outlined in the bill?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
During the pandemic, many landlords reduced rents to help to sustain tenancies. Does the legislation cover the rents that were reduced, or does it cover the contracted levels of rent? For example, for people who have received a 20 per cent discount on rent, do you expect the contracted level of their rent to be covered, or the reduced level?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
I agree with that, but it also feels as though the horse might have bolted in relation to what the bill provides us with in relation to people withdrawing private rented properties in the future.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
I want to move on to the exemptions in the bill, which we have now seen. What is your view on that quite substantial set of exemptions, which include “substantial rent arrears”? What potential impact might they have? With regard to, for example, repossession of a rental property by a bank, would that result in the property being able to be sold but not allow an individual to remain in it?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
I am asking about the concerns that were expressed previously about Labour’s proposals.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
Given the concerns that you have expressed previously about the unworkability of such a bill, do you expect a legal challenge to the bill?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Rent Freeze and Evictions Moratorium
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Miles Briggs
What revisions will be in the bill for housing associations that are providing supported accommodation for vulnerable groups? They have additional costs that are associated with supporting residents, and those costs are often built into rent increases. Has there been a discussion with the sector about any additional costs that they will be facing?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Budget Savings and Reductions 2022-23
Meeting date: 29 September 2022
Miles Briggs
An important part of this, which you have outlined, concerns the projected lack of uptake of the benefits that are currently available. When it comes to this year’s in-year spend, where do other benefits—for example, the best start grant—sit, and are those also being earmarked as potential areas in which finance is currently allocated but may not be spent?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 29 September 2022
Miles Briggs
That is helpful. We are also waiting to see the bill and probably will not see it until an hour before the committee has to look at it.
Specifically with regard to rural homelessness, which we maybe do not talk enough about, supply and demand in those cases is often hugely limited. Do you know of any work that has been done about potential consequences for rural homelessness?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 29 September 2022
Miles Briggs
Finally, I want to ask about an issue that I have raised consistently. We are seeing a really depressing and worrying picture with regard to the number of children in temporary accommodation. I would say that, here in the capital, the situation is at crisis point. Where is the Scottish Government going wrong with the policy direction on that?
