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 1244 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Justice Priorities
Meeting date: 14 September 2023
Jeremy Balfour
I am grateful for that answer, cabinet secretary. Perhaps it would be helpful to get updates as we go along.
Has there been any analysis of the change in the rental market as a result of the emergency legislation that was introduced last year? Is the same amount of social temporary accommodation still available, particularly in Edinburgh and Glasgow, or are landlords moving away and selling their property? Has any work been done to analyse that?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Jeremy Balfour
I am conscious of the time, but, if it is okay, I want to ask just one more question. Do you have any comments on the potential use of the community bus fund, its level of funding and how it might fit in with what we are going forward with? Paul White might have something to say about that.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Jeremy Balfour
I want to move us on slightly with regard to where we are now. How has the end of Covid support funds affected the availability and affordability of bus services? With those support funds now gone, what has been the impact on rural and urban communities? Perhaps Paul White could start.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Jeremy Balfour
Thank you.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Jeremy Balfour
Good morning, everybody. I declare that I have a concessionary bus pass due to my disability.
I am interested in the last point that Paul White made, about how much the bus companies get per journey if someone uses their disabled pass or their younger person’s pass. Is that figure going up in relation to the amount of money that it costs a bus company? My understanding is that the calculation disadvantages certain bus routes, because there are not enough stops or they travel further. Would you like that to be looked at again, or are we at a place where the bus companies can make it work?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Jeremy Balfour
I go back to Mick Hogg’s point about the closing of stations and the non-manning, or non-staffing, of stations. What response have you had around that point, particularly from people with a disability? If they arrive at a station and there is nobody there, how are they meant to cope if they need help? Has the question been discussed of what people are meant to do in practice?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Jeremy Balfour
Is there a marked difference between rural communities and urban or city communities, or is there a similar picture throughout Scotland?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Jeremy Balfour
As the deputy convener said, we are here to look at child poverty, in particular. What effect has subsidising buses had? Is that a way of helping people to get to work or to school, which helps with employability?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Jeremy Balfour
I will just follow that up. Obviously, Edinburgh is the best place to live—[Laughter.]—and Edinburgh buses probably provide the best service of anywhere in Scotland. The service is owned by the three local authorities, but it makes major profit. If Edinburgh can do it, why can other cities not do it?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Jeremy Balfour
Do the other two witnesses have anything to add?
