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
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 March 2022
Alasdair Allan
I am interested to hear, perhaps from Mr Macdonald first, about the science around the decision. As I have conveyed previously, I am slightly disappointed that we do not have Government scientists here today. I would be interested to know the witnesses’ views about the science in this area, in particular regarding the decision to move away from the initial proposals from the Government and how they have been kept informed.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 March 2022
Alasdair Allan
As I understand it, the closure came into effect on 14 February. Can you explain the extent to which fishermen are still able to fish? Are there any compliance issues in that respect?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 March 2022
Alasdair Allan
I have a question for Simon Macdonald. The Government has moved its position to some extent towards, or at least to take account of, what has been put to it by fishing interests. What do you advocate that the Government should have done that it did not do? How would it have done that in a way that would have protected cod spawning?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Scottish Government Resource Spending Review
Meeting date: 24 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
Ms Murray, you said that it can be hard to measure the benefits of these interventions in terms of culture and health, although we all know that benefits are there. Does either of you want to say anything about evidence from other countries on that? I realise that work has been done very recently—Ms Murray mentioned England—but, more generally, is there any evidence from elsewhere that might be offered to help to make the business case that you describe about the benefits of prescribing cultural activities or closer working on budgets between cultural and health organisations?
10:30Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Scottish Government Resource Spending Review
Meeting date: 24 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
From what you have just described, the evidence is there. However, it has been pointed out by Diana Murray that, sometimes, it is a struggle to assemble evidence that makes a business case. What can be done to marshal the international evidence in a form that will convince health boards, Creative Scotland and everyone else about the need for closer working?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
UK in a Changing Europe Regulatory Divergence Tracker
Meeting date: 24 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
You alluded to the experience of businesses that trade in goods. You talked about how Brexit had not simplified regulation—I think that you were talking about trade—from the point of view of businesses that find that regulation might have been multiplied or at least duplicated. Can you make any observations about the Scottish Government’s intention to attempt to keep pace with regulation in Europe? What might the impact of that be? Are there any areas that it might be fruitful for the Scottish Government to concentrate on to minimise that experience of duplicated regulation or of complication from the point of view of people who trade in goods?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
The committee has talked quite a bit about how the bill relates to the proposed human rights bill, and I appreciate that much of what is in the plan that will come out of this bill will touch on issues that will come up in that future legislation. How will the plan be agile enough to deal with emerging situations, one of which, as we have already touched on, is the fact that fuel poverty is bound to create food insecurity as energy prices increase? I use that as an example, but can you talk a bit about the need for plans to be flexible and whether you think this one is agile enough to cope with such emerging situations?
10:00Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
I will not hold you accountable for the forthcoming legislation on human rights, but are you able to say anything on how the right to food and other related rights might be integrated in that bill?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
Finally, on the subject of integration, where does Scotland’s global food footprint feature in the Government’s approach to the bill? I appreciate that, as Karen Adam pointed out, the bill cannot be about everything, but I presume that the Government wishes at the very least to do no harm and, I hope, to do some good in integrating how we think about food in Scotland with how we think about our food footprint in the developing world and the work that we are doing there. How does that feature in the Government’s thinking about the bill and the plan?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
Thank you for that very helpful legal explanation. I should make it clear that I was not trying to put the Government on the spot, but it is very helpful to have that.
You have talked about holding yourselves to these standards, but how will you assess whether others in the public sector, such as local authorities, are living up to them, too?
