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 953 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
General Question Time
Meeting date: 2 September 2021
Tom Arthur
I absolutely recognise the vital role that the arts and culture play in our communities. Indeed, last week, I visited Dundee waterfront, where we see the transformational impact of the V&A. That is referenced in our position statement, which we published last year, alongside the developments that are taking place in Paisley, which are another example of Scottish Government investment in the arts and culture supporting regeneration.
The Government is committed to taking forward the per cent for art scheme. This is a complex area that will require consideration, but I look forward to Ms Boyack’s engagement on it, just as I look forward to her engagement on the draft national planning framework 4 when it is laid before Parliament in the autumn.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
General Question Time
Meeting date: 2 September 2021
Tom Arthur
The Scottish Government will lodge a draft national planning framework for scrutiny in Parliament this autumn, alongside a comprehensive programme of public consultation. As we set out in our position statement last year, NPF4 will include stronger planning policies to support our creative industries.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Tom Arthur
I do not have in front of me detail on the specific question that Mark Ruskell raises, but I am happy to write to him. He raises a very important point: it is absolutely correct that we recognise that we have a duty to support the cultural sector in recovery, but the cultural sector also has a massive role to play in supporting town centres to recover. I am very keen to take that forward with Mark Ruskell and any other interested member.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Tom Arthur
I will shortly set out plans for a Scotland loves local loyalty card scheme and a £10 million Scotland loves local programme to help revitalise town centres that have been hit by the pandemic.
We are working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and partners to respond to the ambitious vision for our town centres and the recommendations to deliver it, which were set out in the recent town centre review report, “A New Future for Scotland’s Town Centres”. All that is underpinned by our £325 million place-based investment programme, which will accelerate our ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods and town centre revitalisation.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Tom Arthur
Claire Baker raises a lot of important points. Those ideas are all live and relate to our response to the town centre review, which is due to be published later in the year. I draw her attention to our retail strategy, which is also due for publication later in the year. Finally, as planning minister, I will lay a draft of national planning framework 4 in Parliament in the autumn.
I am very keen to make sure that all those areas of the portfolio align. In particular, I recognise the point that is implicit in the comment that Claire Baker makes, which is that we need to ensure more community ownership in our town centres. As the minister responsible for social entrepreneurship and employee ownership, I am happy to engage further with Claire Baker and any other member on that area.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Tom Arthur
We recognise the concerns that have been raised regarding a level playing field for all, and the Government is committed to supporting all businesses, including those that deliver online services. For that reason, in our manifesto, we committed to exploring the introduction of a new national digital sales tax, and we will look into that complex area.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Tom Arthur
The Scottish Fiscal Commission is the independent body responsible for forecasting revenues for the fully devolved taxes. In “Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts”, which was published on 28 January 2021, the SFC forecast that the Scottish Government will receive £586 million in revenue from land and buildings transaction tax in 2021-22.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Tom Arthur
The Scottish Government provides support through first-time buyer relief, which raises the nil band from £145,000 to £175,000 and means, in effect, that eight out of 10 first-time buyers do not pay any tax.
With regard to a regional scheme, I recognise that that is an area in which the Conservative Party has some interest. I am open to receiving more information on what Liz Smith’s proposals would be, but I caution that LBTT is a national tax and that we would have to be cautious about introducing unnecessary complexity into the system by using a localised methodology.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Provisional Outturn 2020-21
Meeting date: 17 June 2021
Tom Arthur
Due to prudent management of Scotland’s public finances, the Scottish Government was able to protect our most vital public services without overspending our budget. During the last financial year, we have responded to the pandemic by allocating an additional £3 billion to health and wider health initiatives and an extra £1 billion to local government through measures such as our lost income support scheme, winter support packages and free school meals scheme. We have also ensured that our rail and bus networks remain sustainable through an additional £850 million of funding and provided an extra £450 million to education to ensure that extensive support measures could be implemented.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Provisional Outturn 2020-21
Meeting date: 17 June 2021
Tom Arthur
Mr Gibson is absolutely correct to raise that issue. The key challenge is the fluidity of the overall funding position. When announcements are made, we do not know when we will receive the consequentials. We had the Barnett guarantee last year, but we currently do not have that, so we do not know about negative consequentials. That would make budget planning extremely difficult in normal times; the situation is compounded in the context of a pandemic. The cabinet secretary has written to the chancellor and is looking to set up a quadrilateral meeting with the other devolved Administrations. I very much hope that the chancellor will take up that offer.
We are looking forward to taking forward the fiscal review next year. It is key that the review’s remit be as broad as possible. I hope that we can work together as a Parliament to ensure that Parliament receives the powers that it needs in order to respond fully to the crisis and to progress Scotland’s recovery.
