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 1466 contributions
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Economy and Fair Work Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 June 2024
Maggie Chapman
I have a brief follow-up to Claire Baker’s questions. What would the implications be if we did not approve the instruments that we are considering today? I suppose that that comes back to the question about the delay. I hear what you say about wanting to comply with the 2021 act, but what would the implications be if we waited, carried out all the consultation that you intend to do anyway and got it right first?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 5 June 2024
Maggie Chapman
Good morning, minister, and thank you for your opening remarks.
Following on from that, and thinking about the ambition to halve the disability employment gap by 2038, I would note that over the past few weeks several panels have told us that it is not actually very ambitious and that there should be no disability employment gap at all. I am interested in hearing your response to that challenge that the target lacks ambition and that there should be no gap. Why would we tolerate just halving that gap over the next 14 years? Why are we not seeking to eliminate it?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 June 2024
Maggie Chapman
There was a lack of direct engagement with people who are in debt as the regulations were pulled together. There was clearly discussion with people from the advice sector, but not much with people who are in debt directly. What will be the impact of the regulations for people who are in debt—for consumers themselves?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 5 June 2024
Maggie Chapman
I think that other members might pick up on some of those points in a little bit more detail.
My final question is on the no one left behind approach and on bringing together that partnership and collaboration that you have talked about. The committee heard contrasting views not necessarily of how successful the approach had been, but of what its impact was; indeed, organisations and people working most closely with those with lived experience said that they did not always see the positive impact of the approach. How, then, would you assess the impact on disabled people themselves? You have talked about culture change, and clearly there has been an impact on how organisations work—indeed, we have heard as much—but do you think that that is flowing through to positive change for disabled people themselves?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 June 2024
Maggie Chapman
Yes.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Disability Commissioner (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Maggie Chapman
And “What next?”
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Disability Commissioner (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Maggie Chapman
Thanks very much.
Arun Chopra, in your opening comments, you set out what the Mental Welfare Commission does, and it is helpful to see it in that context. You have very clear evidence of where the accountability and implementation gaps are, yet you also say quite clearly that the bill may not be the right route to a remedy. In the work that the Mental Welfare Commission does, where are the challenges around those gaps of implementation and accountability?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Disability Commissioner (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Maggie Chapman
That is very helpful. You have touched on safeguards and, in your opening remarks, you talked about the need for greater clarity around safeguards. Can you say a little more about that? Safeguards mean slightly different things in different contexts. In relation to your work, what are you talking about when you talk about safeguards for disabled people?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Disability Commissioner (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Maggie Chapman
Thank you very much. That is really helpful.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Disability Commissioner (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Maggie Chapman
Nick Hobbs outlined that the lived experience and participation of young people are vital to the role of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner. Would you like to add anything else on that, Nick?
