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 835 contributions
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Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
BBC (Digital-first Agenda)
Meeting date: 2 March 2023
Alasdair Allan
I will roll my other two questions into one. You will have to translate “leaning into bigger brands” for me as I do not know what that means. Who are the bigger brands in piping? Does “leaning into bigger brands” mean leaning out of diversity?
My second question is on the back of last week’s evidence. Finlay MacDonald, from a piping point of view, and Tommy Smith, from a jazz point of view, asked whether the new model that you are describing for BBC Radio Scotland involves more of a DJ model for programmes. In other words, does it involve fewer live performances and less engagement with experts?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Devolution Post-EU
Meeting date: 2 March 2023
Alasdair Allan
Mr Wragg, I do not want to put words in your mouth, but I think that you said that recent things that have happened with the Sewel convention have been in response to the unusual political times that we are living through. I do not disagree that we are living through unusual political times. However, do you have any reaction to, or comment on, the fact that, in this Parliament, one of our concerns is that the changes in respect of the Sewel convention are but some of the changes that are happening around us in what many of us see as being a radically different UK Government view of the powers of the Scottish Parliament?
This is all happening in the context of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 and the REUL bill, with implications for devolved law on an industrial scale. The context is also that, for the first time since the days of Queen Anne, I think, UK ministers have intercepted a bill before it got to the royal desk. Do you see that as part of a slightly bigger context than concerns about the Sewel convention.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Devolution Post-EU
Meeting date: 2 March 2023
Alasdair Allan
I will go first to Mr Irranca-Davies. The committee has been looking at the impact of the changing understanding of the Sewel convention, if I can put it as diplomatically as that, on our situation in Scotland. It is something on which the Welsh Government has commented. Will you say something about how the situation in Wales has developed, from the Senedd’s point of view, particularly in the light of, I understand, the seven instances in which the UK has legislated without the Senedd’s consent?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
BBC (Digital-first Agenda)
Meeting date: 2 March 2023
Alasdair Allan
Last week, as I am sure you heard, Tommy Smith, the distinguished jazz musician, pointed out that a number of European countries, some of which are similarly sized to Scotland, have a radio channel that plays jazz, one that plays traditional music and one that plays classical music. Those are public service broadcasters. Why are we in Scotland still arguing about a couple of hours here and there?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 1 March 2023
Alasdair Allan
You have given us a clear picture of some of the challenges that you think that there are sector by sector in achieving our shared aims in emissions reduction. In what you have said so far, you have been concentrating on examples of what is happening and the challenges ahead, so it is perhaps more difficult to tell how far you have to go and what mainstreaming would look like in your sector. What would the mainstreaming of the things that we are trying to achieve with carbon emissions look like in your sector, and how far away is it?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 1 March 2023
Alasdair Allan
I asked Jim Walker what the distance was to mainstream. I do not know what the distance is to the end of his contribution, but maybe he can address that point before he finishes.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 1 March 2023
Alasdair Allan
I am sorry to interrupt, but I think that you misunderstood my question—perhaps I did not put it very well. My point is that the animals cannot be just grass fed. In terms of livestock, you cannot have agriculture, as anyone would understand it, without bringing in feed to island and west coast areas. It cannot be done—there would be no livestock.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 1 March 2023
Alasdair Allan
This is not meant to be a provocative question. Is that because the arable sector has more means than other sectors to invest?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 1 March 2023
Alasdair Allan
I will continue with that theme. I declare an interest of a kind: like Jenni Minto, I represent an island constituency.
I am not clear what you are recommending to crofters. On the one hand, you are saying that, rather than having livestock, they might be better off having trees. On the other hand, you say—quite rightly—that you would not want trees to be planted on peatland. In places such as the west of Scotland, peatland is pretty much all that there is. What do you recommend that crofters should do instead of having livestock?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Future Agriculture Policy
Meeting date: 1 March 2023
Alasdair Allan
My only other observation, which I am keen to get your views on, is that, compared with those in most European countries, supermarkets in Scotland and the rest of the UK have far more power over the market in relation to what people eat, and they are far less likely to stock local goods. You seem to be talking about a dramatic shift, but supermarkets in the UK do not seem to be signed up to that in the way that they are in other countries. How do we tackle that attitude?
