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 529 contributions
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Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 June 2023
Oliver Mundell
I am interested in the point that Michael Paparakis made about there being relatively few cases at the moment. Clearly, the bill envisages a greater role for courts in the administration of trusts. There will be several new opportunities to involve the court in trust matters. Does that give a greater reason to expand the options for people?
On the point about some of the evidence that we have heard about court costs, there is certainly a public perception—including on the part of many people involved with trusts—that the sheriff court could be a more expensive route. If the bill goes ahead, what do you plan to do to publicise information on the likely costs of going to the sheriff court?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 June 2023
Oliver Mundell
Briefly, convener. I had planned to ask about the codification of trust law later, but would you rather that I asked about that now?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 June 2023
Oliver Mundell
In the same evidence session, we also heard concerns that people might try to draft around the provision or include clauses to create the flexibility to make changes outwith that period. Multiple witnesses at that session seemed to agree that that would not be desirable. Do you take that point on board?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 June 2023
Oliver Mundell
Thank you.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 June 2023
Oliver Mundell
Coming back to the points that your officials have made, minister, do you think that this has been a missed opportunity? Some people have been in touch with the committee to say that there could have been a wholesale codification of trust law. Given that we have not had major legislation in this area for a long time and that the bill has come to the Parliament through the SLC process, I imagine that it is unlikely that the Parliament will legislate on trusts on this scale for years. Have we missed the opportunity to do that codification exercise?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 June 2023
Oliver Mundell
That would be helpful. It feeds into a wider issue—one which will potentially be referenced in other questions—about how people navigate the legislation, bearing in mind that a lot of the individuals who interact with it are not going to be legal professionals. Many people put themselves forward for smaller charitable trusts to try and do something good for society, and having clear advice and guidance for them on how legislation affects them would be useful.
You say that you do not expect an increase in litigation. However, the bill creates a lot of new opportunities for the courts to get involved in trusts, so it is hard to see how there would not be an increase in cases. What is your analysis based on?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 June 2023
Oliver Mundell
I will leave it for now, convener.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Oliver Mundell
Touching on that point, but more broadly, on 9 May we heard from legal academics including Professor Gretton and Yvonne Evans, who said that, in practice, a solicitor would just “draft around” a 25-year provision. This question may be for Chris Sheldon and Mike Blair: are we worrying too much about it? Would most trusts be drafted to give some leeway in relation to purpose?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Oliver Mundell
I am interested in sections 25 and 26. Concern has been expressed to the committee that trustees’ duties to provide information to beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries under those sections are too onerous and that the extent of the duties is uncertain. Do you want to share your views on the provisions, particularly if you have concerns? I am interested in how you would change the sections to address those concerns.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Oliver Mundell
I want to move on to section 61 of the bill, which gives power to the beneficiaries and others to apply to the court to alter the purposes of a family trust where there is a material change of circumstances. The section sets out the default position that that power cannot be used for 25 years. Is having such a 25-year restriction the correct approach? We would be interested to hear your views on that and your reasoning.
