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 2166 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Alternative Certification Model
Meeting date: 22 September 2021
Stephen Kerr
I thank Larry Flanagan, Seamus Searson and Tara Lillis, who have been our panellists for the past hour and a half. We really appreciate your giving us your time. We thank you for not just your oral evidence but the written evidence that you submitted in advance of the meeting, for which we are very grateful.
We will conclude our evidence taking on the alternative certification model next week, when we will take evidence from the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
The public part of today’s meeting is now at an end. We will consider our final two agenda items in private.
12:40 Meeting continued in private until 12:57.Education, Children and Young People Committee
Alternative Certification Model
Meeting date: 22 September 2021
Stephen Kerr
Audrey, do you want to comment on whether there should have been more guidance, or less?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Alternative Certification Model
Meeting date: 22 September 2021
Stephen Kerr
We will come back to that issue. I think that Audrey May was saying that some of the criticisms are a little bit after the event. It was a very difficult situation that people were managing their way through.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Alternative Certification Model
Meeting date: 22 September 2021
Stephen Kerr
Thinking back to that period, were you looking for more guidance than you got at the time?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Alternative Certification Model
Meeting date: 22 September 2021
Stephen Kerr
Kaukab wants to say a brief final word.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Alternative Certification Model
Meeting date: 22 September 2021
Stephen Kerr
I thank Audrey May and Tony McDaid for joining us. The evidence that they have given has been insightful and very useful.
I suspend the meeting briefly to allow us to change panels.
11:02 Meeting suspended.11:07 On resuming—
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 22 September 2021
Stephen Kerr
Good morning, and welcome to the third meeting of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. This morning, we are meeting in hybrid format and will hear further evidence on the alternative certification model. I have received apologies from James Dornan.
Agenda item 1 is a decision on whether to take agenda item 4 in private. Do members agree to take item 4 in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Alternative Certification Model
Meeting date: 22 September 2021
Stephen Kerr
Sorry, Bob, but I think that there is something wrong with your sound. It sounds as though you are very far away.
I am told that it is all right on the broadcast and that everyone in the room can hear you well enough. Please carry on.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Alternative Certification Model
Meeting date: 22 September 2021
Stephen Kerr
I have no doubt that, despite your best efforts, some young people were left behind.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Alternative Certification Model
Meeting date: 22 September 2021
Stephen Kerr
With regard to your comment about the teachers’ experience being reflected in the experience of the young people, one of the schools that we spoke to last week highlighted the need for fun to be put back into learning. I think that that is an expression of what you have just been talking about.
