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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Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Jeremy Balfour
I will leave it there. Thank you.
10:45Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Jeremy Balfour
One of the responses that the committee received was about the role of mediation. There is nothing in the bill about that. Did the commission consider a formal role for mediation? If so, what policy considerations led to the decision not to include in the bill a process whereby, rather than having to go to the Court of Session or a sheriff court, mediation could be used as a stepping stone?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Jeremy Balfour
That is helpful. Thank you for your kind offer.
I move on to an issue that has been raised by one of the legal firms. It concerns section 19 of the bill, which is on nominees. The law firm thinks that the section might not go far enough. Specifically, it has said that doubt would remain as to whether trustees could use a nominee custody structure or sub-custodians. I am interested to get your view on the scope of section 19 and any potential risks that have been identified in relation to it.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Jeremy Balfour
No, I was just saying thank you to Lord Drummond Young for the kind offer. We may well come back to him on it.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Jeremy Balfour
Chapter 7 extends to charitable trusts. Will you explain how, if there was a protector for a charitable trust, their powers and duties would sit alongside the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator’s powers to regulate charitable trusts?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Cost of Living (Disabled People and Unpaid Carers)
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Jeremy Balfour
Good morning, panel—it is great to have you with us.
I will move on to look at the effectiveness of temporary cost of living assistance. We are looking at which short-term measures have the greatest impact and at what measures could be implemented in the future.
I will start with a general question. Most of the recent cost of living assistance benefits have targeted families with young children—the best start grant and the Scottish child payment, for example—and that has been welcome and right. However, are you concerned that carers, disabled people and even elderly people are being left behind? If so, what support do they require?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Cost of Living (Disabled People and Unpaid Carers)
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Jeremy Balfour
I cannot see that, convener, so I hand back to you to chair the questions, if that is okay.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Jeremy Balfour
Amendment 62 deletes section 10(3)(b) and (c). Section 10(1) states that a debtor will satisfy the debt if they in good faith pay the last person who they knew held the debt. Section 10(3) includes a provision that a debtor will not be considered to have performed other than in good faith just because the debtor is deemed to have received notice of an assignation of the debt. I consider that, if the assignee can demonstrate that the processes for intimation have been complied with, the onus should be on the debtor to demonstrate that they were in good faith.
Regarding amendment 63, the bill states that the debtor will satisfy the debt if they in good faith pay the last person who they knew held the debt. The bill says that the debtor will not be considered not to be in good faith if they have received intimation of an assignation of a debt. Amendment 63 removes that provision and should be read in conjunction with amendment 62. I consider that, if the assignee can demonstrate that the processes for intimation have been complied with, the onus should be on the debtor to demonstrate that they were in good faith.
I look forward to hearing the minister’s reaction to amendments 62 and 63 and his explanation of amendments 4 and 8 in his name.
I move amendment 62.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Jeremy Balfour
Do you believe that amendment 55 is incompetent? It simply seeks to amend something within the bill. I look for clarification on that if possible, minister.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Jeremy Balfour
Amendment 64 is for future proofing the bill, which I hope will become an act, with regard to fees for third sector organisations. We held a helpful evidence session with a number of groups and received written evidence on the issue of the fee not having to be paid by a third sector organisation for the service if it has to go to the register. I know that the minister helpfully wrote to the committee at the beginning of this week or the end of last week to say that the Government was not persuaded of the need for such a provision. I would be interested to know a wee bit more about why the Government has gone down that road.
I accept two things. First, I accept that we want the register not to be a loss leader, if I may put it that way, but to break even. However, we also need to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our society from having an expense that might stop them being able to go forward.
Secondly, I accept that the fee that the Government imagines, which will come into force next year, is not large, comparatively speaking, but we do not know where that fee will go in future. It is possible that it could stop vulnerable people accessing a register that others can afford to access.
It is not my expectation that people from third sector organisations will use the register frequently, but I think that, when it is necessary for such an organisation to do so, the fee should be waived. I look forward to hearing what the minister has to say about amendments 64 and 81.
I move amendment 64.
