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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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
That brings the session to an end. I thank the witnesses for their evidence.
10:08 Meeting suspended.10:12 On resuming—
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
Welcome back.??We will now hear from our second panel on employability programmes. Expanding employability provision is a key proposal in the Scottish Government’s “Best Start, Bright Futures—Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-2026”. In the context of the current budget pressures, it is unclear what progress has been made so far and what the role of employability programmes is in the current tight job market.
I welcome our witnesses. David Stewart, regional development manager at Fedcap Scotland, and Philip Whyte, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland, join us in the room. Marion Davis, director of policy, communication and strategy at One Parent Families Scotland, and Sarah McCulley, service manager for employment and training at Falkirk Council, who is representing the Scottish Local Authorities Economic Development Group, join us remotely.
As with the previous panel, before speaking, witnesses should wait until I—or the member who is asking the question—say their name to allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn on their microphone. Anyone who wishes to come in on a question can indicate that by typing R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans. Please do not feel that you have to answer every question.
I invite members to ask questions in turn, as agreed in our pre-briefing.?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
I believe that Jackie Galbraith would like to come in.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
I will bring Paul O’Kane back in, but we have run over our time, so please be as clear and concise as possible.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
Before I bring in Marion Davis, I note that we are running out of time and two members would still like to ask questions. I ask the panel, if possible, to be more succinct and concise in their responses. Thank you.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
Our next item of business is evidence from two panels of witnesses as part of our inquiry into addressing child poverty through parental employment. Over the past few weeks, we have held evidence sessions on issues around childcare. The focus of the discussion with our first panel is the provision of education and training. Barriers to accessing education and training was a strong theme in our recent call for views. Such barriers can, in turn, prevent access to the workplace and to work progression.
I welcome to the meeting our first panel. Kenny Anderson is director of the Scottish Wider Access Programme (West)—SWAPWest—and Keith Robson, who is senior public affairs manager at the Open University, is representing Universities Scotland. Kenny and Keith join us in person. We are joined online by Sharon McIntyre, head of careers information, advice and guidance operations at Skills Development Scotland, and Jackie Galbraith, principal and chief executive officer of West Lothian College, who is representing Colleges Scotland. I thank you all for coming. We are delighted to have you here.
Before we start, I have a few points to make about the format of the meeting. I ask witnesses and members who are participating online to wait until I or the member who has asked the question have said your name before speaking. Please give our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn on your microphone before you start to speak. If you wish to come in on a question, please indicate that by typing R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans. You should not feel that you have to answer every question—if you have nothing new to add to what has been said by others, that is perfectly okay. I ask everyone to keep questions and answers as concise as possible.
I invite members to ask questions in turn, as agreed in our pre-brief, starting with Katy Clark.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
Thank you. I will now bring in Paul O’Kane with the last of our questions.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
I believe that Marion Davis and Sarah McCulley want to comment.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
That concludes our public business today. I thank all our witnesses for taking part and sharing their expertise.
The committee will move into private session to consider the remaining item on the agenda.
11:23 Meeting continued in private until 11:32.Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
I have one last question before we finish up, which I will put to Keith Robson, Kenny Anderson and Jackie Galbraith. What impact will the tightening of college and university budgets have on provision for adult returners and student parents, particularly low-income parents?
