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 1487 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Jeremy Balfour
I might come back in later.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Jeremy Balfour
Good morning. I will wrap two questions into one, for the sake of time. To go back to Claire Baker’s question about the transfer, did you go to the Scottish Government and say, “We need these people,” or did the Scottish Government say to you, “We have these people—can you take them on board?” Whose choice was it to take those individuals on board?
Previously, when I have asked you about why you could not tell us how long things would take, you have told the committee that it was because the system was not designed in that way. Do you have confidence that the people who are being transferred across and who have designed the initial system are capable of delivering a system that will be up for 21st century analysis? One of the problems that the committee and the public have is that we cannot get a lot of information because you cannot provide it. That is because of the system, yet the same people who designed the system are now being taken on board.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Jeremy Balfour
I put on the record that I am in receipt of the higher rate of ADP. One of the things that came out of the Edel Harris report, which probably relates to you rather than the Scottish Government, is the application form, which is complicated. I confess that I have a lot of empathy with people in that regard. What plans do you have, if any, to look at that issue? I know that you do a lot on stakeholder feedback, but how do you ensure that you get the information in a way that does not stress people out?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Jeremy Balfour
But I am concerned about what the point of that form is. Why are you doing that? Presumably, you or the Scottish Government could say, “We have reviewed 90 per cent of cases and they are all right.” However, you are not seeking new evidence or asking for anything new—you are simply asking someone to sign a form to agree with what has already been done. That does not seem very efficient to me.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Jeremy Balfour
I suppose the question is, why are you reviewing? What is the point of the review in relation to the whole system? That is fundamentally what I am struggling to find out. What is the point of the review when you are not asking someone to give any new information? They are simply being asked to confirm information that is already within your knowledge.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Jeremy Balfour
It would be interesting for the committee to know, from the reviews that you do, how many cases then change—either to a higher award or to a lower one. If you have that information, the committee would be interested in you providing it.
I am conscious of time, so I will move on. Audit Scotland’s report argued that Social Security Scotland should be able to show the added value of ADP, including in comparison with personal independence payments. How are you demonstrating that added value?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Jeremy Balfour
If I may, convener, I want to start with a caveat. Depending on what the electorate do in May, David, this might be my final question to you, so, although it will be slightly critical, I just want to say that I have really enjoyed our nine-year relationship and working with you and your team, and I want to put on record that what you have done has been quite remarkable.
That said, one concern is the number of successful appeals; indeed, the figures show that the rate of successful appeals in Scotland is higher than the rate of appeals on PIP down south. Eight years ago, one of your great mantras was, “Get it right first time,” but we are clearly not doing that in quite a substantial number of cases. What training is being given to those making the decisions? I know that there will never be no appeals, but how confident are you that, in a few years’ time, the figure will be fairly dramatically reduced?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Jeremy Balfour
Thank you.
Again, I do not quite know where the interchange is between you and the Scottish Government on this matter. Last January, I transferred across—very successfully, so thank you for that. Then I was asked if my case could be reviewed. That came a few months later. I was sent eight or 10 pages, which, in summary, basically asked, “Has your condition changed or not?” It seemed to me that a lot of paper was used to ask one quite simple question, and I was not sure what the purpose of that was: what good it did individuals who get stressed by a letter, and what good it did you. Every year, when someone gets their award, they are told that if their situation changes, they need to notify Social Security Scotland. What is the point of that form? It is quite long. Does it actually make any difference to the number of people who claim?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Two-child Cap
Meeting date: 15 January 2026
Jeremy Balfour
Thank you. My other questions have been dealt with in those answers, so I am happy for you to move on, convener.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Two-child Cap
Meeting date: 15 January 2026
Jeremy Balfour
Good morning, and thank you for coming. What are your initial comments on how the Scottish budget will address child poverty, given what John Dickie has said? To what extent have your recommendations been taken into account in the Scottish Government’s decisions?
