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 912 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee
Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Katy Clark
I want to ask about independent legal representation, in order to put on the record the views of the witnesses and, in particular, those of Sheila Webster, because she has spoken a number of times about the whole judicial process and not just the court element.
Given everything that survivors and rape victims have said about the disempowering nature of the whole process for them, and given its adversarial nature, does Sheila Webster not think that there is a strong case for those people to have advice and legal representation throughout the process, so that they will understand what is going on and their interests will be protected? Perhaps, given the time, Sheila can respond briefly.
Criminal Justice Committee
Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Katy Clark
It would be fair to ask Professor Munro if she has anything to add to that.
Criminal Justice Committee
Management of Sexual Offences Cases
Meeting date: 10 January 2024
Katy Clark
It happens in many parts of Europe, and indeed in parts of South America and in other jurisdictions, but I appreciate that you may not have looked at those.
Criminal Justice Committee
Management of Sexual Offences Cases
Meeting date: 10 January 2024
Katy Clark
Thank you.
Criminal Justice Committee
Management of Sexual Offences Cases
Meeting date: 10 January 2024
Katy Clark
Did the review consider whether complainers might be provided with independent legal representation in a wider range of circumstances? You may be aware that, in other jurisdictions in recent decades, legal representation has been introduced throughout the process in some cases. Did the review group consider that, or have you given any thought to it?
Criminal Justice Committee
Management of Sexual Offences Cases
Meeting date: 10 January 2024
Katy Clark
Have you looked at other jurisdictions, or did you not do that in any detail? Did you consider whether some of the consequences that we have been discussing have transpired in other countries where independent legal representation has been brought in?
Criminal Justice Committee
Management of Sexual Offences Cases
Meeting date: 10 January 2024
Katy Clark
As you know, one concern that is raised repeatedly by survivors and victims organisations is the lack of power and information that many rape victims in particular feel throughout the process—not only during the court process but from the very early stages.
Criminal Justice Committee
Management of Sexual Offences Cases
Meeting date: 10 January 2024
Katy Clark
As you know, one of the major concerns—
Criminal Justice Committee
Chief Constable Jo Farrell: Vision and Priorities for Police Scotland
Meeting date: 20 December 2023
Katy Clark
Continuing on that theme, chief constable, you have mentioned court delays being a major factor in retraumatising survivors and victims. However, you will know very well—because I am sure that the situation is similar in other parts of the UK—that, historically, victims’ experiences of police services in the context of violence against women and girls have been poor. I appreciate that a whole raft of work is being done, but how will you evaluate whether women are finding the service more supportive and effective? What thought have you given to whether the changes are working?
Criminal Justice Committee
Chief Constable Jo Farrell: Vision and Priorities for Police Scotland
Meeting date: 20 December 2023
Katy Clark
Thank you. That is helpful. Members of this committee are often frustrated that we sometimes have difficulty in getting data shared with us. I very much hope that, as somebody new in the post of chief constable, you would want to work closely with this committee. Many of us were pleased that a woman was appointed for the first time, and we want to have a strong relationship with you all. Could you share that evaluation with us on an on-going basis so that we can see whether there is an improvement in victims’ experience?
10:45In your opening statement, there was a lot of mention of change. For a lot of people, that will ring alarm bells, because change often means cuts. You have said that £2 billion has already been saved as a result of the creation of Police Scotland, but you have also outlined a number of difficulties with new systems that are partly related to the creation of Police Scotland, including body-worn cameras. It is not a one-way street. There are problems, obviously, and a lot of resources have gone into the reorganisation.
Do you accept that there is a big gulf between what the public expect from the police and what senior management thinks are the correct models? Many people are hugely frustrated that there seems to be less police visibility in their communities. When people phone the police, perhaps for what the police see as a routine matter, they do not get the response that they want. That is not necessarily just down to police numbers, although there is a big political fight over police numbers.
We understand from the most recent announcement that 29 police stations are under threat, is that part of a continuing programme, and will there be further announcements that police stations will close? Will you give a bit more detail on that? I understand that some of the estate is old and might not be fit for purpose. It might be that new facilities will be built or repurposed, whether that is through co-location or in another way. Will you give us a bit more detail about the programme?
