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 732 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
I am sorry to interrupt; it is quite awkward when we are hearing from witnesses remotely. I am keen to hear specifically about how the model helps families. You are still talking about the organisation rather than children and families.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
If I were going to be gently provocative, I might say that 10 years feels like quite a long time to get to the point at which you understand that you need to support families as well as children. Am I picking you up unfairly?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
So, who is responsible for an integration agreement between the two organisations? Why has it not happened?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
It gives an example of the work that you are doing. What I am trying to get at—I will probably start sounding like a broken record—is what that means if, for example, I am the mother of a child who has difficulties. Do I pick up your directory and phone whichever service I think suits them, after which I will then be plugged right into it? Is that what is happening on the ground in Fife?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
That was helpful. Martin, do you have any reflections on that?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Okay. That probably shows the need for us all to reflect on children and families rather than organisations.
It would be good to hear from some of the other witnesses.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Good morning. I had some questions about structure, but I think that you have covered that issue pretty well in your answers about the importance of leadership and the issue of culture versus structure. I also hear Jude Currie loud and clear when she talks about her members feeling depleted if navigating around the structures takes more energy than doing the job itself.
One aspect of leadership and culture that we have not talked about is accountability. What risks and opportunities do you see in the proposal to move accountability for children’s services from local authorities to Scottish Government ministers?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 9 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Acknowledging that, can I press you for some examples?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 9 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
The committee is being told that no decision has yet been taken about whether children’s services will be included in the bill. Is it fair and reasonable to do that intensive work with children and young people—which, if a human rights-based approach is taken, will include some vulnerable children and children with additional support needs—if what they are expecting might not be the outcome? How do you do that in a way that is fair to them?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 9 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Good morning. I have found this session really useful. Colleagues have covered a lot of ground.
I take on board the points that you make about the importance or otherwise of structure. We have experience of going through health and social care integration. Reflecting back on that and looking forward to potential change that is coming, I am interested in what lessons have been learned. Some of the concerns that have been raised about the bill are around the risk of disruption of services.
From the perspective of children and families in our communities that need the services that are provided, what lessons have we learned through integration that can help us as we move forward?
