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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Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 23 November 2023
Richard Leonard
Let us go back to the variability question, which Simon Burt wants to come in on.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 23 November 2023
Richard Leonard
Thanks. We will certainly return to workforce planning and some of the other points that you raise. We are pressed for time, so I will move to questions from the deputy convener, Sharon Dowey.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 23 November 2023
Richard Leonard
You have described all the increased needs. In an area such as East Ayrshire, the cost of living crisis and the pandemic have presumably heightened need in the community that you serve. Is that a fair assessment?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 23 November 2023
Richard Leonard
Right. Thanks very much.
I have to report that Pamela Cremin in the Highlands was having some technical difficulties, but I think that they have now been solved. I will endeavour to bring her in on the next set of questions. I turn to Willie Coffey to put those questions.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 23 November 2023
Richard Leonard
We lost connection with Jillian Galloway, but it has been restored. I invite Jillian to give any reflections that she has on the point about the governance arrangements with IJBs that Colin made.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 23 November 2023
Richard Leonard
I am sorry, Simon, but I think that Hannah Axon wants to come in on that question. Do you want to come in on that question as well as on your earlier point?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 23 November 2023
Richard Leonard
I think that Fiona Davies and Simon Burt indicated that they wanted to come in on the data question. Does Fiona Davies want to come in first? I will then bring in Simon Burt. I do not know whether Pamela Cremin has a view on that, as well, before we move on.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 23 November 2023
Richard Leonard
Thank you for that forbearance, Willie, it is much appreciated.
May I come back on that very last point, Richmond? You talked about CAMHS, which is extremely important to all of us, and it is something that the Parliament has concerned itself a great deal with. This report is about adult mental health, so can you tell us a little bit more about what data collection there is on people’s experience of adult mental health, and what those outcomes are?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 23 November 2023
Richard Leonard
Jo Gibson, thank you very much for that perspective. It is a really good note on which to conclude our evidence session this morning.
I thank everyone who has taken part. I am sorry that we have had some technical difficulties, which has meant that not everyone has been able to hear everything and we have not been able to hear you as much as we would have liked. Apologies for that.
I thank our witnesses—those who joined us online, and Hannah and Richmond, who joined us in the committee room. It has been a valuable session for us. We have gathered a lot of important evidence, and we will have discussions about how best we can marshal that evidence in order to improve the resourcing of and support for the important work that you do and of which you have oversight. Thank you very much.
10:50 Meeting continued in private until 11:25.Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 23 November 2023
Richard Leonard
I will kick us off by asking some questions, before bringing in other members of the committee. I am sure that you will have read the report, which is the genesis of our round-table discussions that have taken place over the past few weeks. It contains a recommendation that people should be provided
“with a choice about whether they access mental health services remotely”—
through telephone or videolink—
“or face-to-face”.
I wonder how you, as different agencies responsible for providing the services and for having oversight of them, respond to that recommendation. I will begin by asking Simon Burt to comment.
