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 1964 contributions
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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Rachael Hamilton
Can the cabinet secretary direct me and my colleagues to the conditions that are set out, and the definition of “the public interest” test, whereby the Government agency would refuse to pay support? Where is that?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Rachael Hamilton
I will press my amendment, which is supported by the NFUS, SLE, FAST and others. Despite what the cabinet secretary has said, it is right that a definition of “the public interest” is brought forward in relation to section 10. The Government has the ability to do that and to allow Parliament to scrutinise it. It is important to give people clarity on the outcomes.
I was going to support Edward Mountain’s amendment 169, on removing section 10, although it is a bit of an oxymoron, but it sounds as though he is not going to move it. I am happy to support the other amendments in the group.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Rachael Hamilton
Will the member take an intervention?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Rachael Hamilton
I have no further comments, and I seek to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment 204, by agreement, withdrawn.
Section 29 agreed to.
Schedule 2—Repeals and minor modifications
Amendments 18 and 19 moved—[Mairi Gougeon]—and agreed to.
Schedule 2, as amended, agreed to.
Sections 30 and 31 agreed to.
Section 32—Index of defined terms
Amendment 205 not moved.
Section 32 agreed to.
Sections 33 and 34 agreed to.
Long title agreed to.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Rachael Hamilton
I am a little bit confused by Ariane Burgess’s amendments. Innovation and technology are supporting farmers to make efficiencies and cut their costs. I am very much supportive of ensuring that labour is part of the whole farming and agricultural landscape, and we know that it is, as it supports rural communities, but are you saying that, in order to get support, farmers need to increase the number of people they employ, even if they do not need them?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Rachael Hamilton
We discussed this matter last week. As I said, the stage 1 committee report on the bill notes that
“A definition of ‘high-quality food’ is not provided in either the Bill or the accompanying documents.”
If the Scottish Government is asking farmers and food producers to deliver “high-quality food”, it is important that the Government is clear about what it means by that.
Pete Ritchie of Nourish Scotland stated in evidence to the committee:
“it is bad law to put ‘high-quality food’ on the face of the bill if there is no intention to define it.”—[Official Report, Rural Affairs and Islands Committee, 13 December 2023; c 8.]
Others disagreed with that. However, as I stated in committee last week, we were previously told by Scottish Government officials that high-quality food relates to
“unadulterated produce that comes out of the ground and that is produced under the basic standards and expectations of Scottish agriculture”.—[Official Report, Rural Affairs and Islands Committee, 29 November 2023; c 4.]
To me, that is meaningless.
Last week, the cabinet secretary further suggested that,
“if people comply with the high, rigorous standards that we”
—the Scottish Government—
“have in place, that will meet the definition of high-quality food.”—[Official Report, Rural Affairs and Islands Committee, 8 May 2024; c 13.]
That statement does not chime with the previous statement by Scottish Government officials, so there is clearly disagreement, or no official line, on the matter.
Does the cabinet secretary intend to provide a clear definition of “high-quality” in the rural support plan? If so, would she be happy to discuss an amendment to that effect before stage 3?
I move amendment 204.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Rachael Hamilton
No problem.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Rachael Hamilton
This is the second time that I have tried to bring forward the particular argument for supporting local food producers to supply, through the procurement process, local schools and hospitals and local communities. I am not convinced that the framework in the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 is going to be able to prioritise local procurement. When we debated it, there was very little support from the Scottish Government to review the current procurement process. However, I hear what the cabinet secretary says about the 2022 act being the right piece of legislation to take forward this aspect, through the consultation on, and delivery of, the local good food nation plans and so on. I am, therefore, happy not to press my amendment.
Amendment 200, by agreement, withdrawn.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Rachael Hamilton
Amendment 185 would require Scottish ministers to review payments that are made under the legislation that is listed in the Agriculture (Retained EU Law and Data) (Scotland) Act 2020. Briefly, I would like some reassurance from the cabinet secretary that the Scottish Government has the ability to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of payments and the delivery of the required outcomes, because I am concerned about that. For example, will the powers that Scottish ministers have to shape the rural support plan allow for monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the required outcomes?
I move amendment 185.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Rachael Hamilton
Yes, I will do so.
Amendment 137 moved—[Rachael Hamilton].
