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 1377 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Ben Macpherson
That sounds like a reasonable restriction in some ways, but if there are considerations in which less waste can be achieved to the benefit of communities by providing them with food, it would be good to be aware of that.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Ben Macpherson
Thank you for that emphasis and clarification.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Ben Macpherson
I am familiar with the best value report process and the considerations thereafter around how the Government and, in this instance, the education inspectorate should engage with the specific local authority, both at a political level and an official level. It seems that you have outlined that that is the right course for Scottish ministers and for parliamentary pressure to be directed.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Ben Macpherson
Thank you, both, for your reflections. That is helpful.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Ben Macpherson
This will be my main question, because it is related to the area that we have been discussing.
I thank the panel for their evidence. I have been thinking back to when I was in the second year of higher still, with the implementation of NABs and that initial culture change. The position of coursework and continuous assessment then altered in the following years. That speaks to the point that Professor Hayward made at the beginning about the need to continually emphasise the vision through practical implementation. We also need to consider the points that Peter Bain has just made.
Following on from the consultation with teachers in the short term, and as we enter the implementation phase with the considerations of workload and buy-in, teacher training and continuous professional development seem to me to be crucial as we think ahead to the process of implementing the SDA and making it work. Have you had any reflections on that?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Ben Macpherson
As well as ensuring that young people can consider sources and what is truth, is there a need to make sure that our young people have the knowledge and skills to use AI and utilise its opportunities? That may be something that we need to talk more about.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Ben Macpherson
Given the changes that were made in that first period of the implementation of higher still and the alterations that were made to assessment, is it important to learn from that process? Is it important to have a consistent, stable position for a good period in order to properly embed the implementation of curriculum for excellence in this next important phase?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Ben Macpherson
Good morning, all. I will build on what my colleague Michelle Thomson asked about. Thinking back to before the Verity house agreement, in recent years, one of the main reasons for ring fencing and direction was because of political pressure being applied on the Scottish Government by Opposition parties and others to meet certain policy obligations that required local government to be a significant part—the main part—of that delivery. As we move on after the Verity house agreement, open up the flexibility and remove the ring fencing and direction—for clarity, I support that approach—what should be the Scottish Government’s role if a local authority is failing to improve outcomes in an area of national priority such as education?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Ben Macpherson
I want to build on what Ruth Maguire asked. The answer from Dr Hutchison and the elaboration from Carrie Lindsay on teacher numbers was really interesting and important. I want to be absolutely clear: you think that consideration, whether in our public discourse, media commentary or analysis, should be given to the pupil teacher ratio rather than teacher numbers. Was I correct in taking that as your overarching message?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Ben Macpherson
Good morning. I have a question about prohibiting pavement parking, dropped-kerb parking and double parking. You will be aware of how much of a problem such practices are, particularly in urban environments, including my constituency. I am grateful for your response to me earlier this month, but I would also be grateful if, for the benefit of the Parliament as a whole, you could confirm that the Scottish ministers remain committed to introducing a ban on parking on the pavement, parking in front of dropped kerbs and double parking. When will that ban take effect through the implementation of the relevant provisions of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019?
