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 1324 contributions
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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Miles Briggs
That is helpful. A concern about which the committee has heard a lot and of which I am sure that you are acutely aware is the decline in the number of small to medium-sized builders, who often develop and take forward such projects. You mentioned funding being demand led. Given the current cost-of-unit price, what can the Scottish Government do to support smaller developers, especially when they are looking to develop affordable housing, which is often on a small scale?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Miles Briggs
I want to pursue a point that Marie McNair raised on forecasting and financing for housing associations, which are quite clear that the impact of the Scottish Government’s rent controls will mean their having to look again at their 10-year financing and consider whether projects will be affordable. Given that the committee will not see the bill until next week and that we have not had the chance to consult a wider group of stakeholders, what impact assessment has the Scottish Government undertaken to consider whether the approach will pull the plug on many vulnerable potential developments?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Miles Briggs
Good morning. I thank the witnesses for joining us.
The conversation about the state of the market has been quite negative up to this point. When it comes to solutions and ways of ensuring that we achieve the targets to which we signed up, do the witnesses think that there are new opportunities for financing and leveraging more money into the sector? Are there opportunities for longer-term investments such as pension funds to invest in housing schemes? Are different models available to enable us to realise the potential that we want to realise for housing construction? Perhaps Fionna Kell will go first.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Miles Briggs
That was helpful. As no one else wants to come in on that, I will move on.
Homes for Scotland has made suggestions about Government support schemes. Help to buy has been scrapped in Scotland. If we are heading into a period in which it will be more difficult for people to find a deposit to enable them to buy a home, what should the Scottish Government do? Should it put that scheme back in place, to help people to get deposits, or is there a different model to support private buyers and to enable private homes to go on being built? Fionna Kell, we heard you express concerns about a 30 per cent reduction in the number of affordable and social rented homes that will be delivered by a strong private build. What is your view on the future of help to buy and other models of support?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Miles Briggs
That was interesting. Thank you.
As no one else wants to come in on that point, I will move on, in the interests of time. What are the witnesses’ views on the UK Government’s Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, and specifically on the missions in it that relate to housing? For example, the UK Government wants renters to have a secure pathway to ownership by 2030. What do the witnesses think about the bill and the impact that it will have on devolved areas?
If no one wants to comment, I will hand back to the convener.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 23 June 2022
Miles Briggs
Thank you.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Resource Spending Review
Meeting date: 23 June 2022
Miles Briggs
In the interests of time, I will try to merge my questions on the equality and fairer Scotland budget statement. Could the Scottish Government have gone further in that statement by presenting, even in broad terms, how it has sought to minimise the impact of real-terms cuts in some budget areas? Could local government be one of those areas, given that it has had a £250 million cut? As the cabinet secretary has said, that will impact on the policy agendas that local government is tasked with delivering. The committee has been very passionate about free school meals, but councils’ ability to write off school meal debt is being impacted. Has the cabinet secretary considered the unintended consequences relating to other budget areas and delivering this portfolio agenda?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Low Income and Debt Inquiry
Meeting date: 23 June 2022
Miles Briggs
Specifically, and it has been raised already with regard to writing off public sector debt, we have heard a lot of evidence on free school meal debts. Some of the parliamentary questions that I have lodged have been answered by saying that that is for local authorities to decide, and they will tell us that they do not have the resources to do that.
We have heard evidence that council tax debt is likely to increase during the cost of living crisis, as it is one of the areas in which people decide that they cannot and will not pay. When it comes to a wider strategy around such debt, where is the Government on the potential writing off of some of it? School meals are also a priority area for all of us.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Resource Spending Review
Meeting date: 23 June 2022
Miles Briggs
Good morning. I thank the cabinet secretaries and their officials for joining us this morning.
There are reports today that the £41 million that the Scottish Government received from the UK Government to alleviate the cost of living crisis has not been allocated. Where is that additional resource likely to be allocated? Will there be a statement to Parliament about that before the recess?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Resource Spending Review
Meeting date: 23 June 2022
Miles Briggs
We have already discussed policies on tackling child poverty. What work is the Government undertaking to analyse how resources are being targeted in policies? We have had that discussion in relation to children in temporary accommodation on a number of occasions, and resources do not seem to be being well utilised, given that the cost is £27,000 per case. Is wider reform of resource allocation taking place?
