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 831 contributions
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Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
Alasdair Allan
My understanding is that the bill allows for that activity. Maybe we can talk about that with the next panel, too.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
Alasdair Allan
So, the people who practise agriculture on your land have never felt the need to dispatch a wild mammal other than by shooting.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
Alasdair Allan
I want to pick up on the points that have been made about rabbits. Last week, when we had people in from the Government who drafted the bill, a number of us pressed them on the subject. As far as I understand what was said then, the bill’s intention is very much about—as others have alluded to today—preventing the chase, if you like, and killing by a dog, rather than preventing the killing of rabbits. Perhaps Penny Middleton can answer this question. Notwithstanding your concerns, do you accept that that intention is in the bill?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
Alasdair Allan
Some of the concerns that exist around rabbits are about pest control. That is a legitimate concern. Many of us who live in the country will appreciate that rabbits can be a pest. However, it has been put to us that the intention behind that part of the bill is not to prevent the killing of rabbits; it is simply about the method. Do you recognise that that is what the bill is intended to do?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
Alasdair Allan
Although I live in the countryside, unlike most members of the committee, I do not have foxes in my constituency, so I defer to your knowledge on the issue.
Jake Swindells has spoken about trail hunting. Whether we are talking about trail hunting or something else, would you draw a distinction between dogs following an animal scent and a non-animal scent in relation to the usefulness of that exercise or the potential abuse of it?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
Alasdair Allan
I want to follow up on your comment that you had never felt the need to go beyond what is proposed in the bill when it comes to controlling foxes. I appreciate that you have given us an ethical view, but have you or the people who practise agriculture on your land ever felt the need—for agricultural reasons, as it were—to go beyond what is envisaged in the bill, for instance as regards the number of dogs?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
Alasdair Allan
Section 12 of the bill, as it is envisaged, provides for the training of young dogs to follow an animal scent or an animal-based scent, but it does not envisage trail hunting per se taking place. Can either of the witnesses offer any observations about that? Do you feel that that distinction in the bill is adequate? How does it sit with your ethical point of view?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
Alasdair Allan
Very briefly, Mr Orr-Ewing, do you see the motivation behind making a distinction between training a young dog and having an organised trail hunt?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
Alasdair Allan
My question follows on from that and is about the aims of the bill. To a large extent, the bill has emerged from what Lord Bonomy had to say about the failures of the existing legislation, as he saw them. Do you identify with Lord Bonomy’s views? Can you say anything about whether the bill’s aims match the recommendations of Lord Bonomy’s review? Do you agree with what he had to say?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
Alasdair Allan
You mention unintended consequences regarding the bill. I appreciate the concern that you raise, but a number of witnesses have indicated that unintended consequences may be associated with the current law in this area. One of you—perhaps Penny Middleton or Ian Duncan Millar—might want to say something about the unintended consequences that may currently exist around hare coursing. I know that some of you have different views on the extent to which that is happening, but could it be described as an unintended consequence of the current law?
