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 696 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 21 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
It would also be useful to write to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to seek information about the number of cases of motorcycle theft in each of the past five years and the outcomes of those cases.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petition
Meeting date: 21 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
You have touched on population issues. We know that NHS boards with larger populations have mental health assessment units that are available 24/7. That is really useful for larger populations, but the issue is in trying to evaluate these services, cabinet secretary. Is the Scottish Government looking to make it much more of a national service? You have touched on the issue of rural areas, where, as you have identified, it is a much bigger challenge for you to make that happen. There is a disparity between what happens in urban areas and what happens in rural areas, which do not have the same support and opportunities, and patients might fall through the gap.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 21 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
This has been an eye-opening session, minister, and I am staggered at some of the responses so far—at the complete lack of understanding of the situation and circumstances that we have heard.
On the licensing system, the Scottish Government says:
“The Scottish Government believes that the licensing scheme for the control of mountain hares … does not impact on the ability of falconers to enable their birds to exhibit normal behaviour patterns.”
We have heard that the licensing scheme is completely and utterly unworkable, so do you believe that statement? It is not the position of the profession, which is able to understand what is taking place, but the Scottish Government fundamentally believes that it is the case. Do you still believe that it is?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
In the submission that the Scottish Government made to the committee in March, you committed to consulting with stakeholders in justice and health to establish the best methods of recording how many requests for prescribed medication had been made by individuals in custody, and whether those requests had been met. Can you give us an update on any progress on that?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
Thank you for coming to the meeting.
You talk about rurality. Is it not the case that, in some situations and circumstances, there are opportunities to develop processes? Have you given any feedback on the fair fares review, which the Scottish Government is using to look at concessionary travel? Have you been involved in any consultation on that review or had other involvement with it?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
It would also be useful to write to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body to seek clarification of its role in relation to the SPSO and to ask for its views on the action that has been carried out for the petition, specifically in relation to the value of the independent review of the SPSO.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
That information gap might well have been identified, minister, and you have now indicated that through other resources and ways of managing it, it might be closed. We are trying to identify whether such a gap exists—and it would appear that it does—and whether everyone is supported while in custody.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
Has Nicoletta Primo had any involvement with the fair fares review?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
I hope that the situation that the petitioner found herself in is just a one-off, but it might not be. We might assume that, when we get a home report, the fundamentals would be covered in that report. It is important to continue the petition. I would request that we write to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors to seek a view on the issues that are raised by the petition, requesting information on the training and guidance that is provided to surveyors and valuers to ensure the accuracy of information that is included in a home report. We should also ask for RICS’s view on the proposal to include contact details for the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution in home reports. In addition, I think that it would be useful to write to the Law Society of Scotland to seek its views on the issues that are raised in the petition.
If the situation is not one that regularly occurs, the relevant regulations should protect the individual who is purchasing a property. The quality of the survey that surveyors carry out is vitally important.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
I think that we should take more evidence on the subject. I suggest that we write to the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland, the Confederation of Passenger Transport, and Heads of Planning Scotland, seeking their views on the petition and asking how the views of the taxi and private hire trade are included in their decision-making processes, what scope there is to include the taxi and private hire trade in public transport stakeholder groups, and how engagement and consultation on decisions that affect the services that they provide could be improved.
I suggest that we also write to the Scottish Government to seek an update on what is happening with the short-life working group and to ask for further information on any action that is being undertaken to improve engagement between the taxi and private hire industry and the planning and licensing authorities. That would give us an indication of where we are in the process.
