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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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Redress Scheme
Meeting date: 12 January 2023
Oliver Mundell
Again, that is helpful information. We are dealing with quite a small number—12—and the feedback I have had from one individual is that they feel that, somehow, if a person goes through the review process they could be given more help to gather more information. Some of the people who have received an increased payment offer have spent more time looking at their application, and doing that has brought new information to light. I know that the system is under pressure, which is why I ask.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Redress Scheme
Meeting date: 12 January 2023
Oliver Mundell
I recognise up front your personal commitment to getting the scheme through in the previous session of the Parliament, and I know that there was some time pressure with regard to ensuring that that work did not go to waste. However, on some of the issues around the delays and the challenges of processing the applications, I feel that it is right to press you on the modelling and how we modelled that.
10:30Today, you have mentioned three factors involved in the delays, and I think that there is a fourth factor, for which, as a Parliament, we are collectively responsible, which is expectation management. Survivors thought, with regard to these applications and the principles that we set out, that things might move a bit quicker than they have. We must always be cautious about that, but, with regard to the modelling, where did the idea that people would take longer to put in their applications come from? We have looked at comparator schemes elsewhere as part of drawing up the legislation, so how did we get that modelling wrong?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Redress Scheme
Meeting date: 12 January 2023
Oliver Mundell
It is about 8 per cent of people.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Redress Scheme
Meeting date: 12 January 2023
Oliver Mundell
It is about one in 12.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Redress Scheme
Meeting date: 12 January 2023
Oliver Mundell
I am probably testing the committee’s patience, but this issue is important to me.
I want to follow on from Stephanie Callaghan’s question, as I have come across the same issue with people accessing statements and reports. I understand the sensitivity around that, and I fully appreciate the answer that you gave, but would it be fair to say that, when the bill was passed, it was not the Government’s expectation that the restriction order would be in place?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 January 2023
Oliver Mundell
It could be a promotion.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 January 2023
Oliver Mundell
On your previous comments, what vested interests do you think that the Faculty of Advocates and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have in raising concerns about the appropriateness of a framework bill?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 January 2023
Oliver Mundell
I suggested to you in my previous question that the faculty has concerns about the appropriateness of the bill as the mechanism for bringing matters forward and you replied that some of the organisations that have been critical of the bill have vested interests. Are you saying that you were not referring to the evidence of the faculty or the Equality and Human Rights Commission?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 January 2023
Oliver Mundell
Have you read those organisations’ submissions?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 January 2023
Oliver Mundell
That is helpful. It has always been my understanding that, although parliamentarians can speak to ministers, raise points and do other things to impact the wording of regulations, they have no power to change what regulations say. That is a fundamental concern. That differs from primary legislation, where any member of the Parliament can propose changes to the wording of a bill.
That leads me to a final question. MSPs can only amend what is in the bill. If we have less information in the bill, there is less opportunity to amend the wording, which dictates the meaning of the legislation. Is that correct, minister?
