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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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Natalie Don-Innes
I mentioned that a handout amendment or something similar would be possible. Again, I cannot go into details on that today, because I need to see where we get to by the end of stage 2. However, my commitment to work with Pam Duncan-Glancy is on the record.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Natalie Don-Innes
Yes.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Natalie Don-Innes
Yes, and on other grounds, as I have just laid out for the member.
Amendment 190 allows
“any person who is or appears”—
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Natalie Don-Innes
I do not think that that is a decision for me, as a minister, to take. That is what I am trying to lay out here.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Natalie Don-Innes
I have just done that—I have articulated my reasons for opposing the amendment. I do not see how I can be any clearer.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Natalie Don-Innes
I do not believe that it is incorrect. I think that we are agreeing to disagree here.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Natalie Don-Innes
I would just say, in all honesty, that something unexpected could happen. I am talking about one example and one situation here—this will happen on a case-by-case basis, and every situation will be different. The chair might make that decision initially, but that does not mean that difficulties will not arise in the hearing that follows, based on that decision. Therefore, I do not think that it would be right to allow such decisions to be made.
Mr Kerr referred to open justice and the Scottish courts in his opening for the amendment. Yet again, I reiterate that the children’s hearings system is not a mini-court system. It is based on the welfare of the child and the outcome that would best rehabilitate that child. I am sorry, but I do not agree with the premise that what Mr Kerr is looking for would be congruent with those aims.
Children’s hearings must be conducted in accordance with article 8 of the ECHR, which requires respect for private and family life. That is why attendance should be restricted to those persons whose presence is necessary for the proper consideration of the case.
Furthermore, the UNCRC, which is supported by all parties, places obligations on children’s hearings to uphold every child’s right to privacy and says that
“No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference”
with their private and family life. Allowing any member of the public to attend a hearing, with no justification, would be a regression in children’s rights and would potentially be incompatible with them.
Amendment 179 fails to consider the fundamental differences between the approach of the children’s hearings system and the approach that is taken by the criminal justice system, as I have just outlined. Amendment 179 does not take account of the fact that the majority of hearings deal with highly sensitive care and protection cases, often for very young, vulnerable children. They are not simply juvenile courts dealing with young offenders.
On the basis that such an approach would disregard the child’s wellbeing, rights and best interests, as reflected in the legislation as it currently stands, I cannot support amendment 179. I ask Mr Kerr not to press the amendment to a vote, but, if he does, I strongly urge the committee to reject it.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Natalie Don-Innes
No. We have set out our intended aim with the amendments. I think that I have spoken to that perfectly well and have explained the premise behind them. If there was any danger of that being the case, I would not be taking forward the amendments in their current form. So, no, I do not have any such concerns.
I ask members to support amendment 16 and the other amendments in the group.
I move amendment 16.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Natalie Don-Innes
As we have heard, amendment 186 would make children’s legal aid automatically available to every child who is subject to a children’s hearing that is fixed by the children’s reporter, including all deferred hearings, irrespective of the grounds of referral. I can see that the intention behind it is to ensure that there is legal representation when it is needed and appropriate. However, that is already in place. Amendment 186 risks bringing an overly adversarial approach into the system when we have a successful national advocacy scheme, and advocates can also draw on legal advice where that is needed.
According to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration’s annual report, 22,341 children’s hearings took place in the year 2022-23. The operational effect of the amendment would be to require the SCRA to notify the Scottish Legal Aid Board of every hearing. SLAB would then, in turn, have to arrange for a duty solicitor to be made available to every subject child, assuming that the subject child did not already have a solicitor of choice. To establish whether every subject child already had a solicitor for every hearing taking place under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 would be a logistical impossibility given the number of hearings, and it is simply unnecessary.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Natalie Don-Innes
I absolutely agree that, if there are issues, they need to be looked at. I would certainly be happy to look into that, especially given the further work that will be done in relation to the “Hearings for Children” report. I also agree with the member that the blanket approach is not necessarily the best way forward but, if there are children falling through those gaps, that needs to be looked at.
