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 2487 contributions
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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
We want to see as few as possible. We have the minimum thresholds and, as I said, we will keep them under review. Industry has to report the numbers—there is a mandatory requirement for it to do so, and the numbers are posted a week in arrears. As I highlighted in my previous response, the vast majority are already below our minimum thresholds. The work that we are taking forward through the sea lice framework will be critical. We really need that to be embedded before we consider whether it is appropriate to continue to lower the thresholds.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
As I said, there is a mandatory requirement for industry to publish the figures. The fish health inspectorate has a role to play in that. Its role is to audit that information, and it also undertakes inspections. We therefore inspect, audit and check.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
That is what I am coming to, but it is important to outline our position in relation to the framework, because it sets the context in which progress has been made. SEPA has assumed responsibility for the authorisation of discharge of treatment residues from wellboats. That responsibility transferred from Marine Scotland to SEPA. Responsibility for other areas is in the process of being transferred to SEPA, so it will be looking at the cumulative impact of the different issues within our marine environment. So, there have been improvements in that regard. Officials might want to come in on some of the specifics.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
On the science, the Scottish Science Advisory Council’s report highlights some of the intrinsic problems that exist and how different science can be used by different people. We need to consider those issues. Obviously, we have to consider the recommendations that we have received on how we communicate that, which will probably help us to find a way through. That is exactly why we asked the advisory council for its report.
A lot of that will also be helped by the work of the consenting task group and what it is trying to do to establish multilateral engagement at the start of the process, as well as all the other pieces of work that we have touched on this morning. SEPA is looking to introduce the new sea lice framework in order to look at the impacts on the marine environment holistically through its own framework. All those strands of work are important in addressing that point.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
Jill Barber can talk through the process that is followed by the fish health inspectorate and its role.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
It is really important that communities are able to have their say. Indeed, we specifically recognised and mentioned that point when we talked about introducing and bringing forward a vision for sustainable aquaculture in Scotland. Of course, we are in the process of developing all of that, and I hope to be in a position soon to share it with the committee, but you will see the role specified in that.
It is the same in my community, your community or whatever community: when a proposal for development arises, it is right and fair that people have the ability to make their views known as the planning process proceeds. We recognise that within the planning process as it exists. Again, I come back to the work that has been taken forward through the consenting task group. The multilateral discussion that takes place at an earlier stage, and that we hope will involve communities, is a key element of the process. It is important that those discussions are held at the earliest possible stage in developments and that communities are engaged with as much as possible.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
I am sorry, but do you mean the Government’s relationship with SEPA?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
Yes, as much as it is possible to do that. As I said, we need to ensure that we have flexibility to deal with the challenges that we face. In my first response, I outlined the overall SEPA fin-fish framework and the different phases of work that are being taken forward by consolidating SEPA as the overall environmental regulator. That helps significantly in the process.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
I do not know whether we have the figures for comparison with the industries in other countries. Perhaps we can provide them later.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
That is set out in regulations—they need to be disposed of in a certain way. Jill Barber might be able to give a bit more information on that. It is probably important to mention how some of the figures are recorded. Some of the mortalities are not necessarily an indictment or reflective of the husbandry of those animals, as they include things such as sub-optimal ova.
I hand over to Jill Barber.
