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 1499 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Pre-Budget Scrutiny
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
I think that that is commonly understood. It came up in yesterday’s Finance and Public Administration Committee meeting that, largely, the UK Government has been working to a one-year budget process, which flows through to the Scottish Government. I do not want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds to me as though, in the strategic review group’s understanding of the detail of both of those things, it is still fairly early doors. It is not just about the initial budget settlement; it is about in-year changes, of which we have seen quite a few, that affect and could have an impact on ring fencing, because there is a lack of visibility and transparency in relation to money coming through. Am I putting words in your mouth?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Sustainability of Scotland’s Finances
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
I will bring in Professor Heald in a moment. Professor Bell made a comment about productivity. Surely there is a link between that and the limitations in capital borrowing powers, which are a critical way for the Scottish Government to improve productivity. Is there not a direct link between that pretty significant limitation and productivity?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Sustainability of Scotland’s Finances
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
Professor Heald, what do you think?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Sustainability of Scotland’s Finances
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
Mr Sousa, do you have a final comment about my original question on short-term political expediency versus long-term strategy?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Sustainability of Scotland’s Finances
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
Okay. Thank you.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Sustainability of Scotland’s Finances
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
Good morning. I would love to be able to lead us on to a topic that cheers us all up a bit, but I am not convinced that I will manage that.
All of you have given a compelling sense of the macro environment in the UK—chronic underinvestment in capital expenditure, high debt relative to GDP, demographic challenges, Brexit, short-termism and, of course, the slowest recovery of all large advanced economies after the crash of 2008. The list goes on. You have also given us a compelling insight into the limitations of Scotland’s being part of that wider economy.
My first question—I have two—is this: do you think that the challenges are really understood? They are understood by economists, and they are understood, mostly, by the Government. I am aware that, following this session, we will hear from a number of bodies that will, inevitably, be looking for more money, with very good reason, which is that people are really struggling. To what extent is that realistic? To what extent is the real nub of the issue that short-term political expediency is set against long-term structural and strategic planning? That has been an issue in the UK and in Scotland over a long period. David Bell, do you want to go first?
11:00Finance and Public Administration Committee
Sustainability of Scotland’s Finances
Meeting date: 19 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
Professor Heald, you used the term “coherent strategy”. I am long enough in the tooth on this committee not to ask, “What would you do if you were the Scottish Government?”, so perhaps we could phrase it as, “What would you do if you were in charge of an economy of roughly 5.4 million people, located next to a large neighbour?” What would be the key elements of that coherent strategy?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 13 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
[Inaudible.]—is what I am saying.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 13 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
That is where I am a wee bit confused. That concept of fairness has a multitude of variables, some of which you have set out. I am merely reflecting on how perhaps another element of that fairness is the fact that, in pockets of society, there are still significant longitudinal effects of the pandemic. Attendance, which Tes Scotland—I should have quoted this figure—estimates at 90.9 per cent, is historically lower. I am merely noting that. I will let other people come in.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Meeting date: 13 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
I want to give you the opportunity to get some stuff on the record. As you will be aware, I am new to the committee, but I have had pretty extensive experience of large so-called transformation programmes in corporate life, and they are invariably difficult, time consuming and expensive. I just want to reflect on where we are here. For a start, the decision to abolish the SQA must have had a resultant impact on your staff’s morale, so I want to get your reflections on that and hear more about what you are doing, from a leadership perspective, to maintain morale in the organisation.
