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 1625 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Carer’s Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 2 September 2021
Pam Duncan-Glancy
Thank you. I understand that there is an increase and that the supplement applies to that. However, as a measure of whether it will get to the carers who are providing the most care and the highest number of hours or the people who live in most poverty, the eligibility for carers allowance does not capture all those people. For example, it is set at a rate that is, basically, 15 hours at the minimum wage, which is quite a low rate. People who are on 15 hours on the minimum wage are also likely to be living in poverty, so it does not capture all those people. A number of people are missing out with regard to caring hours because, for example, of the overlapping benefit rule or the full-time study rule. Those people are still providing more than 35 hours a week of care but they are not able to access carers allowance or the supplement for those reasons. Therefore, the measure does not address any of those concerns about poverty or the intense number of hours that those people are putting in.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Carer’s Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 2 September 2021
Pam Duncan-Glancy
I thank the organisations for their submissions, and the people whom they represent—unpaid carers across Scotland. They have done an incredible amount of work in the past year and a half during the pandemic and before. I know that it has been hard and I see the work that you all do.
It is clear to me that many carers are unable to use the payment to benefit their own wellbeing and instead need to use it to pay bills or, as Salena Begley said, to pay off debt on household costs. As it stands, as an income replacement benefit, is the carers allowance and the carers allowance supplement adequate to cover the care that is carried out? How does that make you feel?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Carer’s Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 2 September 2021
Pam Duncan-Glancy
Earlier, we heard that there is a significant level of poverty among not just the 10 per cent of carers who will access the supplement, but the 90 per cent of unpaid carers who will be unable to access it. That is an incredibly important issue, and delivery is important, as you have said.
I understand that the bill includes regulatory powers that would allow you to set the rate at a higher amount if you wished. The Scottish Parliament information centre has shown that if the carers allowance supplement were calculated based on the rate of universal credit, rather than being based on jobseekers allowance, as it currently is, that would increase the standard payment to £711.46.
Given that you and your Government agree with many of us that, for example, the uplift in universal credit is essential to bring people up to enough money to live on, have you considered using the regulatory power within the supplementary bill to increase the carers allowance supplement in line with that and making it £711.46?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Interests
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Pam Duncan-Glancy
I have two interests that I would like to declare. The first is that I worked for Public Health Scotland until 11 May, at which point I was elected and resigned the post. In addition, I am in receipt of the higher rate of personal independence payment for both the care and the mobility components.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Interests
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Pam Duncan-Glancy
I have a couple of interests to declare. I worked for Public Health Scotland until 11 May—my employment ended when I was elected to the Parliament. Although they are voluntary entries in the register of interests, it is important to mention that I served on the board of Engender Scotland for three years until the end of last year and that I was a policy officer for Inclusion Scotland between 2009 and 2015.
