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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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Kaukab Stewart
Under agenda item 3, we will continue our pre-budget scrutiny. I welcome to the meeting Emma Roddick, Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees; Rob Priestley, head of the mainstreaming and strategy unit in the directorate of equality, inclusion and human rights at the Scottish Government; and Fi Robertson, head of the Scottish budget team in the directorate of budget and public spending in the Scottish Government.
I refer members to paper 3.
As you will be aware, minister, the committee has been engaging with a citizens panel from the whole family equality project as part of our participatory approach to pre-budget scrutiny. In our previous evidence session, representatives from the panel, who are now seated in the gallery behind you, gave us some questions that they would like us to ask you. We will go straight into asking those questions now. I make it clear that we will ask the questions on behalf of the whole panel, but committee members will say who introduced each question in our previous session.
We have agreed who will ask each question on behalf of a panel member, and the minister will then respond. I am sure that it will go very well. I put on the record that the questions that we will ask on behalf of the members of the panel are verbatim as we think it is very important that their voices are put front and centre in this pre-budget scrutiny session.
In the light of that, I will kick off with a question that comes not from me, but from Erika, who asks:
“The panel think it’s important that Scottish Government ministers work together to find ways to close the poverty gap without people having to rely on charities and social security payments. Keeping the Promise is one way that children and families can be supported, but it must be delivered by a diverse workforce. Can the minister explain how she is working with the Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise to ensure that the Promise considers, reflects and supports the cultural and ethnic diversity of all of Scotland’s children?”
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Kaukab Stewart
We move to Fulton MacGregor.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Kaukab Stewart
I have some questions. In previous years, and this year, stakeholders have told the committee about a lack of connection between policy and budget documents and have voiced concerns about the lack of meaningful detail in the equality and fairer Scotland budget statement. The Scottish Government’s response to recommendations from the equality and human rights budget advisory group includes a commitment to better align the programme for government and the budget process.
In that context, minister, can you explain how the committee’s previous concerns about a lack of clarity between documents will be addressed in the coming budget round and how the equalities assessment process will influence that? That concern comes not only from the committee but from the citizens panel, whose members we spoke to earlier, because that lack of connection has been raised at community level. The average citizen does not always see the connection between the decisions that are made and the direct impact that those have on their lives and communities. How will you address that?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Kaukab Stewart
I want to get a wee bit of further reassurance about the Scottish Government’s commitment to implementing the equality and human rights budget advisory group’s recommendations—in the interest of inclusivity, I do not use just initials, so that we all know what it is.
Will the minister explain the funding implications of implementing the recommendations? Are they significant or process-driven changes that can be met within existing budgets?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Kaukab Stewart
I have a wee follow-up question, which you might not be able to answer today. Retrospective analysis came up in our discussions with the citizens panel. Citizens asked what work is done, after budgets are set and policy is followed, to analyse the impact and see whether the money reached the right people. I am fully prepared for the fact that you might not have answers today, but it would be good to hear what work the Government does on impact analysis.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Kaukab Stewart
Thank you. I would like to move on to Allan Faulds.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Kaukab Stewart
We have a bit of an echo. Allan, would you try again and slow down just a little bit to see whether that makes a difference?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Kaukab Stewart
The Scottish Government has said that the committee scrutiny process is key to providing accountability in the budget process. With that in mind, will the panellists comment on whether this is the most effective approach to ensure that the Scottish Government’s human rights obligations are met?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Kaukab Stewart
Allan, I am sorry to interrupt you there. We are getting a bit of feedback at our end. Our technicians are working to see whether we can hear your voice a little bit more clearly.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Kaukab Stewart
Thank you, Heather, and thank you to all our witnesses this morning at the 18th meeting in 2023 in session 6 of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. Those of you with eagle eyes might have noticed that I was remiss in not saying that at the top of the meeting, but it is now on the record.
We move on to questions, and Maggie Chapman, the deputy convener, will kick us off.
