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 3204 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 30 October 2024
Jackson Carlaw
We are interested in keeping the petition open. Are colleagues content to proceed on the basis of Mr Torrance’s proposals ?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 30 October 2024
Jackson Carlaw
I will let Mr Torrance take us on to the second of our themes, which, as you might recall, having listened to the previous session, is the drivers for designating more national parks.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 30 October 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Our next continued petition is PE1989, which was lodged by Mary Montague, who I should say is known to me, as the constituency member for Eastwood, because she is the provost of my local authority, East Renfrewshire Council. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to support the provision of defibrillators in public spaces and workplaces.
We last considered the petition in December 2023, when we agreed to write to the Scottish Government. We received a response from the then Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, Maree Todd, which stated that defibrillators are purchased
“mainly through fundraising in the community”
or are funded by business and organisations. It also stated that the Scottish Government is
“working alongside the Resuscitation Research Group at the University of Edinburgh to better understand the evidence around placement of defibrillators in Scotland and to develop a tool, which would help defibrillator guardians make informed decisions about where best to place their device in order that it could have most impact.”
That sounds a bit like gobbledegook. Anyhow, the committee had asked whether the Scottish Government would consider making representations to the United Kingdom Government to update the legislation on health and safety at work to include defibrillator provision as part of the minimum first aid requirements. The minister’s response stated that
“As the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1947 is a reserved policy area it would be the responsibility of the UK Government to consider the evidence”
and that the Scottish Government’s priority is its collective partnership approach.
In considering the petition, members will have in mind that we recently asked the minister whether the Government would provide direct funding for primary and secondary schools to purchase and install defibrillators, under PE2101. The minister’s response reiterated that it was for local authorities to make decisions on purchasing, installing and maintaining defibrillators for schools. I think that the committee has been quite charged on the aims behind the campaign for defibrillators but a bit underwhelmed by the response.
Do members have any comments or suggestions for action??
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 9 October 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Good morning, and welcome to the 15th meeting in 2024 of the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee. Unfortunately, our colleague Fergus Ewing is unable to join us and has asked us to accept his apology. Additionally, the deputy convener, David Torrance, is unable to join us, but we are joined in his place by Marie McNair MSP. Good morning, Marie. She has, of course, been here with us before, so I need not ask for any declaration of interests to be made on this occasion.
Agenda item 1 is to decide whether to take in private item 4, which is consideration of our work programme, and item 5, which is further consideration of the draft report on our inquiry into the A9 dualling project. Are colleagues content to take those items in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 9 October 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Thank you. Are colleagues content that we proceed on that basis?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 9 October 2024
Jackson Carlaw
As there are no other suggestions from colleagues, are we content to proceed on that basis?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 9 October 2024
Jackson Carlaw
We will keep the petition open, and we will proceed to make that further inquiry.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 9 October 2024
Jackson Carlaw
As there are no other suggestions, are colleagues content with that approach?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 9 October 2024
Jackson Carlaw
We will keep the petition open and act on Mr Choudhury’s suggestions.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 9 October 2024
Jackson Carlaw
Our next continued petition, PE1990, from Jordan Anderson, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to request the introduction of a monthly chamber session to allow young people to put questions to the First Minister and, as was the case at the time that the petition was originally lodged, “her” Cabinet. Of course, that is now “his” Cabinet.
We last considered the petition on 25 October 2023, when we agreed to write to a number of stakeholders and the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, of which I should declare that I am a member. We have received a response from the National Union of Students Scotland, which states that it has no position on the petition and that it aligns itself with the views of the Scottish Youth Parliament.
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body’s response confirms that it has not had representations from the Scottish Youth Parliament to request more sittings in the Scottish Parliament building. The response highlights that a new annual exhibition slot has been added to the terms of its partnership agreement with the Scottish Youth Parliament. The next sitting of the Scottish Youth Parliament is due to take place in the Scottish Parliament on 31 October and 1 November 2024.
In the light of that, do colleagues have any comments or suggestions for action?
