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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Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2024
Bill Kidd
I have a wee tale, which might or might not be interesting. When I was 10, which was about, oh, 12 years ago, I went to a school in Partick. The local authority took pupils away from three primary schools in the area, including mine, for five straight weeks to a place called Galloway house, which, obviously, is down in Galloway. Our teachers came with us—we did not have separate staff in the area or anything like that. We stayed over and we were taken out into the country, which most of us had never really been to much at all, and to the seaside and so on. We also had our straight school classes; we still had our normal education added on.
I do not know whether that is anything like what the witnesses are talking about—I know that you are talking about periods shorter than five straight weeks—but I am aware that the people who were there felt that they benefited from doing it. It was not as if a class would be taken every year—it was a one-off thing, as far as I know, anyway. Our parents had to pay two pounds 12 shillings and sixpence for the five weeks, which does not seem like very much money, and we stayed in a huge place called Galloway house, as I said. We benefited from our normal primary school education continuing, but we also had the other experiences, which we otherwise never would have had.
I do not know whether that type of thing is similar to what you are talking about—if my description is of any use at all—but I think that going away like that benefited everybody who went, boys and girls. Are there different, or differing, roles for school staff and outdoor education centre staff? Do they co-operate and work together?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2024
Bill Kidd
I have a wee tale, which might or might not be interesting. When I was 10, which was about, oh, 12 years ago, I went to a school in Partick. The local authority took pupils away from three primary schools in the area, including mine, for five straight weeks to a place called Galloway house, which, obviously, is down in Galloway. Our teachers came with us—we did not have separate staff in the area or anything like that. We stayed over and we were taken out into the country, which most of us had never really been to much at all, and to the seaside and so on. We also had our straight school classes; we still had our normal education added on.
I do not know whether that is anything like what the witnesses are talking about—I know that you are talking about periods shorter than five straight weeks—but I am aware that the people who were there felt that they benefited from doing it. It was not as if a class would be taken every year—it was a one-off thing, as far as I know, anyway. Our parents had to pay two pounds 12 shillings and sixpence for the five weeks, which does not seem like very much money, and we stayed in a huge place called Galloway house, as I said. We benefited from our normal primary school education continuing, but we also had the other experiences, which we otherwise never would have had.
I do not know whether that type of thing is similar to what you are talking about—if my description is of any use at all—but I think that going away like that benefited everybody who went, boys and girls. Are there different, or differing, roles for school staff and outdoor education centre staff? Do they co-operate and work together?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instrument subject to Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 5 November 2024
Bill Kidd
Welcome to the 30th meeting in 2024 of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. We have received apologies from the convener, Stuart McMillan MSP, and from Jeremy Balfour MSP. I welcome Rona Mackay MSP in Stuart McMillan’s place. I remind everyone to switch off, or put to silent, mobile phones and other electronic devices.
Under the first agenda item, the committee is considering an instrument subject to the affirmative procedure, on which no points have been raised.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instrument subject to Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 5 November 2024
Bill Kidd
Is the committee content with the instrument?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 5 November 2024
Bill Kidd
In relation to SSI 2024/272, does the committee wish to note that an error in the policy note concerning the contribution rate was identified following a question by the committee, and that the Scottish Government intends to correct that?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 5 November 2024
Bill Kidd
Under agenda item 2, we are considering two instruments. An issue has been raised on one of the instruments.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 5 November 2024
Bill Kidd
The instrument makes various changes in relation to fees payable and information required to register as a property factor. In correspondence with the Scottish Government, which is published alongside the papers for this meeting, the committee queried the numbering in regulation 5(3) of the instrument, which refers to a paragraph (5), which does not exist. The Scottish Government indicated that that is a formatting error and confirmed that it intends to correct it by way of a correction slip.
Does the committee wish to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on the general reporting ground, in respect of an error in the numbering of regulation 5(5)?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 5 November 2024
Bill Kidd
Also under this agenda item, no points have been raised on the following instrument.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 5 November 2024
Bill Kidd
Is the committee content with the instrument?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Meeting date: 5 November 2024
Bill Kidd
Does the committee wish to note that the Scottish Government intends to correct the error by way of a correction slip?
Members indicated agreement.
