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 730 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Alexander Stewart
Mr Avery, you have talked about the lack of communication and consultation with staff and communities in the whole process. How are industrial relations progressing? What impact has the handling of the whole affair had on industrial relations between HIAL and Prospect?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Alexander Stewart
I thank Monica Lennon for her evidence. It has shone a light on the process and identified some of the failings and the lack of support that individuals believe exist.
It would be appropriate for us to write to the Coroners Society of England and Wales seeking details of its approach to tissue sample retention and how it mitigates the challenges that are set out by the Royal College of Pathologists. That will give us an idea of where we are with the matter, because there seems to be a lack of support, training and identification. By writing to the society, we would at least get an idea of what is happening south of the border, which seems to work much better for individuals who face the issue.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Institutionalising Participatory and Deliberative Democracy
Meeting date: 20 April 2022
Alexander Stewart
Have you identified any areas in which public participation is not suitable? As I said, there is a risk that damage could be caused by going down a certain route. Have you found any areas that we should stay clear of, because they could be problematic?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Institutionalising Participatory and Deliberative Democracy
Meeting date: 20 April 2022
Alexander Stewart
I thank the panel members for their comments so far.
When you identified the way forward, you wanted to be ambitious, creative and inclusive. To achieve all that, you needed to have a vision. That vision has come out a little bit in the discussion that we have had so far, but it would be good if you would identify how, as a group, you came about agreeing on a vision for the whole process.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Institutionalising Participatory and Deliberative Democracy
Meeting date: 20 April 2022
Alexander Stewart
You have identified your vision, which gives you your starting block, and you touched on the lessons that you have learned from citizens assemblies. Your goal is to enhance democracy but there is also a trust element, which is about individuals feeling that their participation makes a difference. Is there not potential that, if that does not happen in all cases, trust in your goal, aspiration and vision could be damaged?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 20 April 2022
Alexander Stewart
I acknowledge that the pandemic has had a knock-on effect on the process. The most sensible approach would be to wait until we have the pilot evaluation. At that point, we could communicate with the Scottish Ambulance Service on the outcomes of the pilot and the evaluation, and the next steps. We should continue the petition and see how we progress in the timescale that the Ambulance Service has set out.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 20 April 2022
Alexander Stewart
I concur that we should keep the petition open. We have received information from the Scottish Government about the consultation. It is very important that we highlight the evidence that we have received and that we seek assurances that children and young people will be fully involved in the consultation process, including in co-designing it, to ensure that they are willing participants. As we have discussed in the past, the focus is sometimes on the identity that a school uniform brings, but young people have the right to express their views. If they can do so through the consultation, we might receive more information that might help us to make a decision.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 20 April 2022
Alexander Stewart
I concur. The issue is important because, as you have identified, convener, there seems to be a bit of a mismatch across regions and areas with regard to individuals with certain disabilities getting travel support.
We should also write to Transport Scotland to request an update on the fair fares review that you mentioned, which is important with regard to ensuring that there is consideration for disabled people across the piece.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Alexander Stewart
Dr Barnes Macfarlane, you have a background as a lawyer. You heard Sarah Axford’s comments. Do you believe that the role of child welfare reporter is being managed in the right way and with the right focus and emphasis to ensure that relationships can be built?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Alexander Stewart
Jordan, you talked about trying to facilitate, and there is no question but that you are doing that. However, are there any areas that you could enhance or where you have already identified a weakness or blind spot?
