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 1459 contributions
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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Civil Justice
Meeting date: 30 November 2021
Maggie Chapman
I will pick up on the points that Karen Adam and Karen Wylie made on the way in which we think about location. I am mindful of what Richard Susskind said about innovation and the need to think beyond what we have, rather than just replacing what we have with a digital or online system. I am also mindful of what Ruth Crawford said about the second principle: the constitutional right of access to the courts.
The system that we have now—or had pre-pandemic—is not the product of any strategic decision making based on evidence, as Richard Susskind outlined. We are thinking about what we have learned over the past 18 months about the use of digital, online and telephone services—alternative mechanisms of being in contact—and we also need to think about where something happens. We have the physical place of the courts and of people’s homes or, if they are supported by organisations to allow people to give evidence, safe places. However, can we learn something from the codified bairns hoose or barnahus principle, in relation to child witnesses or young people who have been the victims of crime, that still allows for the clear principle that Ruth Crawford spoke about but which takes away some of the tensions and conflicts that are inevitable in a court setting, whether online or in a physical court room?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Civil Justice
Meeting date: 30 November 2021
Maggie Chapman
I like your optimism, Ruth.
I will pick up on what might be quite a broad issue in relation to our systems and processes. You mentioned that judges are well used to determining whether certain courses of action should be taken or alternatives should be found. I have an anecdotal point. I have spoken to somebody who supports survivors of domestic abuse. With the Covid emergency legislation, domestic abuse trials have been virtual by default, but I understand that only about 10 have actually been virtual, because the defence usually objects. In whose interests are such balances weighed?
That is a very small point in relation to the much broader questions of whether our justice system gets gender, racial and other diversity issues in a meaningful way and how we can not plug those into the system but be mindful of them. How can we work with the equalities unit and other organisations to make sure that we are not entrenching inequality?
Both pre-pandemic and during the pandemic, there have been certain entrenched impacts that might have disproportionately affected women, people of colour and some of the more marginalised people, whether they are victims, complainers or defendants. I am interested in how we navigate that space. I do not think that our justice system gets gender at the moment, for instance. We have an opportunity at least to try to address that.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Scotland’s Supply Chain
Meeting date: 24 November 2021
Maggie Chapman
I ask Robert Windsor the same question.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Scotland’s Supply Chain
Meeting date: 24 November 2021
Maggie Chapman
Thank you. I will leave it there.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Scotland’s Supply Chain
Meeting date: 24 November 2021
Maggie Chapman
Thanks very much, Bryan. I ask the same question of Richard Ballantyne.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Scotland’s Supply Chain
Meeting date: 24 November 2021
Maggie Chapman
Hello to the panel. Thank you for putting up with the glitches that we have had this morning.
I wish to explore how ready we are and what we need to do to meet our ambitious net zero targets and other climate change ambitions. In particular, I am interested in how we take advantage of the innovations and new technologies that we will have to adopt, as we change what we do and how we function economically and socially.
We heard from Maggie Simpson about some of the infrastructure requirements in rail. There has also been discussion of the modal shifts that are possible. Regarding infrastructure or other elements of development, investment and change, what do we need—or what do you need—to ensure that we can take advantage of the innovations and new technologies that we will have to rely on in the future?
I ask Bryan Hepburn to respond first.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Supply Chain
Meeting date: 17 November 2021
Maggie Chapman
Chris, do you want to comment on that as well? In particular, you mentioned earlier the number of economically inactive people. How can we make the connections better?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Supply Chain
Meeting date: 17 November 2021
Maggie Chapman
On the skills gaps in leadership and technical skills, can Richard McClelland say a little more about what we need to think about at the macroeconomic level or at the focused, targeted level to support the people with whom you engage and the organisations and companies that you support?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Supply Chain
Meeting date: 17 November 2021
Maggie Chapman
It would be rude not to bring in Paul Little. What are we getting wrong specifically in respect of leadership and the technical gaps that we are identifying?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Supply Chain
Meeting date: 17 November 2021
Maggie Chapman
Good morning, and thank you for being here.
This question might be for Marie Hendry, initially, because you talked about the work that you have done on focusing and targeting skills training through microcredentials. Will you elaborate on that a little bit? We have previously heard evidence that, for some disadvantaged groups, there are barriers to accessing training and opportunities for upskilling and reskilling. Can we focus specifically by geography, demographics or sector? What can you do now, and what do we need to change to ensure that we can improve?
