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 5973 contributions
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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
“A Parliament for All: Report of the Parliament’s Gender Sensitive Audit”
Meeting date: 26 October 2023
Edward Mountain
Because of that last question, I will deal with my questions in a different way from what I intended. All my questions will be on the recommendations that are relevant to the committee.
I struggled with the recommendation on bullying and harassment, and I thought long and hard about the right way to address the matter. I understand why complaints relating to bullying and harassment might be investigated by an outside body, but, in my experience, the committee is fairly robust in how it deals with its colleagues who breach rules. In fact, it is probably more robust than some other people might be who are not directly involved, because committee members have bought into the Parliament and are part of it. Do the witnesses not think, therefore, that it might be better to give the investigation to the third party but allow the outcome of the investigation to be decided by a group of fellow MSPs—the peers of the person against whom the complaint has been made?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
“A Parliament for All: Report of the Parliament’s Gender Sensitive Audit”
Meeting date: 26 October 2023
Edward Mountain
I have one follow-up question. Let us say, for example, that a party is going to elect two people to one of the committees. Let us make this interesting in the sense that I can relate to it and take the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee as an example. Let us say that it was my party and that there were two farmers who desperately wanted to be on that committee but they both happened to be male. Under the rules, one of them could be excluded, yet they would undoubtedly be the best person for the job.
I agree that, if you want to go back and change things to ensure that there are more women farmers—women in agriculture are really important—that is a good start, but that is not where we are at. Therefore, you would say to me, “Edward, you are a man. You can’t be on that committee although you have been farming for 40 years.” How would that make me feel, as an MSP in this Parliament? I think that it would make me feel undervalued. Do you not agree, Susan?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
“A Parliament for All: Report of the Parliament’s Gender Sensitive Audit”
Meeting date: 26 October 2023
Edward Mountain
Thank you. I have heard the arguments, and I am sure that we will discuss them later.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
“A Parliament for All: Report of the Parliament’s Gender Sensitive Audit”
Meeting date: 26 October 2023
Edward Mountain
I have been through a period when I was desperate for us to have proxy voting, because I could not vote in person. By the end of it, I was concerned that people would not know that I had not been in the Parliament or why I had not been voting, because not everyone reads through the voting lists.
The beauty of our current proxy voting system is that it requires a member to apply for such a vote for a period of time, which is important. I will not be on the committee when it makes this decision, but I think that it is important that a proxy vote be allocated for a certain period. Having a permissive system that would enable us to increase it for other things for a set period of time is, I think, right, because it would give parties and the Parliament a chance to ensure that the person who was proxy voting was being properly mentored—and not only by their party. I have always believed that the Presiding Officer has a role in mentoring members who use a proxy vote for a long period of time. We are a family even though we are divided on some issues.
I just wanted to make that observation, convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Interests
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Edward Mountain
Perfect. Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
MV Glen Sannox (Hull 801) and MV Glen Rosa (Hull 802)
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Edward Mountain
Item 3 is an evidence session with Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow Ltd, following the company’s latest quarterly update on the completion of the MV Glen Sannox—hull 801—and what I think will be called MV Glen Rosa but, as it has not been launched yet, I will refer to as hull 802. We will examine issues raised in Ferguson Marine’s latest quarterly update as well as other issues affecting the delivery of the two vessels.
I am pleased to welcome Andrew Miller, the chairman of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow Ltd, and David Tydeman, its chief executive officer. Thank you for joining us. Before we begin, I believe that David wants to make a brief opening statement.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
MV Glen Sannox (Hull 801) and MV Glen Rosa (Hull 802)
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Edward Mountain
Douglas Lumsden, you have some questions and I would like to get Mark Ruskell in.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
MV Glen Sannox (Hull 801) and MV Glen Rosa (Hull 802)
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Edward Mountain
I have one or two questions on the reasons for the delay that you have given. Who within your operation speaks to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency regarding approvals? Is it you or somebody else?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
MV Glen Sannox (Hull 801) and MV Glen Rosa (Hull 802)
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Edward Mountain
Is the compliance director the same person who has run through the whole project or did the compliance director change when the issue went to the MCA?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
MV Glen Sannox (Hull 801) and MV Glen Rosa (Hull 802)
Meeting date: 24 October 2023
Edward Mountain
I understand that and I understand that revisions 4 and 5 were done in November last year. However, revisions 7, 8 and 9, which I suspect are the ones that you are talking about at the moment, were submitted only in July this year. We have had a letter from the MCA, which is clear that, exactly as you have just said, it is not up to it to design out the problem; it is for you to work with it. The letter goes on to say that the regulations that it is referring to have been extant and in force since 2009. It says that there were amendments but that they made no difference. Therefore, the MCA is unclear why you are citing this as a problem—it says that it has been fully consistent on the requirements since 2009.
There seems to be a discrepancy. The MCA says that it is your fault, and you say that it is the MCA’s fault because it is interpreting in a different way. You cannot both be right; one of you has to be wrong.
