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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Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Angela Constance
Perhaps for clarity on the regulations, for most criminal business the default position is that people attend hearings physically, but the provisions give the Lord Justice General a power to issue determinations to change the default to virtual attendance for certain types of case or in certain circumstances. I suppose that virtual appearance is not new. Obviously, there have been developments, extensions of scope and further use of the existing legislative opportunities or the existing powers of the Lord Justice General in relation to the pandemic. The consultation will be on electronic signing and the sending of electronic documents, virtual attendance at the criminal court, national jurisdiction for callings from custody and the maximum level of fiscal fines. That is what the consultation relates to.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Angela Constance
To be clear, convener, while I am aware that Mr Findlay and not victims may have ideological objections to fiscal fines as an alternative to prosecution—
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Angela Constance
Good morning. As you specifically mentioned capital budgets, I will start with that. It is no secret that capital is under extreme pressure. The UK Government has not inflation proofed capital so, in the financial year 2024-25, we will see nearly a 4 per cent real-terms reduction, with nearly a 7 per cent real-terms reduction by 2027-28. The capital position is particularly stretched and severe. We have some prominent commitments, particularly in the prison estate. I have of course had many discussions with the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance. As you would expect, there is an intense amount of engagement at this stage prior to the budget. Obviously, the budget will be published in due course and it will be for Parliament as a whole to scrutinise and agree to that budget or not.
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Angela Constance
Obviously, the budget for the next financial year has still to be published and agreed, but I should point out that the changes that SPS made to its throughcare arrangements date back to 2019. I am ensuring that the calendar years 2024 and 2025 will be our implementation period for the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023. I do not need to rehearse the arguments that were made in this committee on underpinning the focus on throughcare and on starting to plan for people’s release on admission to prison, if they are subject to remand or a determinate sentence.
I will undoubtedly come back to Parliament to discuss how we address our rising prison population, but I am strongly of the view that the actions that we take to address that issue now must also address it in the future. The approaches that we adopt must be not just short-term responses but for the longer term.
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Angela Constance
Yes, and that is the point that I was making. It is in my interests—I am particularly motivated on this—to see those final design plans as soon as possible, so that we can then have a more definitive—
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Angela Constance
Yes. Then we will have a more definitive view of cost, and once we know costs we can plan accordingly, but it is an absolute priority.
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Angela Constance
I have already indicated that the new HMP Glasgow is a priority, and it is a high priority. Decisions will, of course, have to be made about the phasing of resources. It is not a one-year project or investment. However, I do not think that anybody is under any misapprehension that we will not have to replace the somewhat Victorian HMP Barlinnie.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Angela Constance
I am pleased to hear that.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Angela Constance
Bear in mind that the Crown Office writes to the committee regularly and I, too, have written to Mr Findlay on this matter, again supplying a great deal of information, notwithstanding the importance of the separation of powers to the very fabric of justice and democracy.
Criminal Justice Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 8 November 2023
Angela Constance
I am conscious that many organisations, including the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, have submitted their evidence to the committee and much of that is based on the resource spending review of May 2022. I point to the fact that the current year’s budget was in a better place than the resource spending review that was published in May last year. I will continue to do my best to argue and negotiate for the best possible deal for all justice organisations.
As with any estimate of savings that will have to be made, they are based on various assumptions, whether around inflation, pay increases, future financial commitments and budgets, all of which are variables that can change. We have seen that with this year’s budget, because we have seen some of the highest levels of inflation in more than a generation, which has had an impact on the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and other justice organisations.
