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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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
David Torrance
We could write to the stakeholders involved, such as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, Sexual Health Scotland, the British Medical Association, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, Abortion Rights Scotland and faith organisations—Interfaith Scotland, the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child and the Humanist Society Scotland—to seek their views on the actions that are called for in the petition.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
David Torrance
PE1985 is on evaluating garage to home developments and has been lodged by Darren Loftus. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to commission an independent evaluation and provide national guidance on garages to homes developments.
The Scottish Government’s response to the petition notes that the proposed garages to homes project meets the Scottish Borders Council’s local housing strategy objectives and is supported by both the Scottish Borders Council and South of Scotland Enterprise. It states that the buildings will be permanent, high-quality homes, designed for wheelchair users and/or people with limited mobility.
On the issue of community engagement, it highlights a public consultation that was held in November 2022 and plans for consultation events in the future. The submission concludes by stating that the
“Scottish Government does not prescribe, nor enforce, particular housing solutions, but rather it provides the planning framework against which developments are tested.”
The petitioner’s recent submission asks:
“Is the aspiration of the Scottish Parliament to move their citizens, specifically older adults and people with a disability, into housing units converted from garages?”
His submission questions the quality of the feasibility study for the project, stating that no social factors or identifiable local housing needs were factored into the study.
Do members have any comments or suggestions???
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
David Torrance
I am sure we can find that out, Carol. Do we agree to take forward Alexander Stewart’s recommendations?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
David Torrance
Item 3 is consideration of new petitions. I will begin this item as I normally do by saying that, before the committee considers a new petition, we send it to the Scottish Government to request an initial view on the petition, as well as asking for a briefing from the Parliament’s impartial research service, the Scottish Parliament information centre.
Our first new petition today is PE1969, on amending the law to fully decriminalise abortion in Scotland, which has been lodged by Gemma Clark. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce legislation to fully decriminalise abortion services in Scotland and make provision to ensure that abortion services are available up to the 24th week of pregnancy across all parts of Scotland.
Gemma highlights that, although the Abortion Act 1967 sets out criteria making abortion permissible, such as the requirement for two doctors’ signatures, it does not explicitly decriminalise abortion. Gemma believes that that leaves women open to the risk of prosecution if they choose to end their pregnancy.
In responding to the petition, the Scottish Government makes clear its view that all women should be able to access abortion services, as set down within the limits of the law, where they wish. The Government’s response refers to work being undertaken with national health service boards to ensure that services up to 24 weeks are established in Scotland. It also makes reference to the support that is being provided to Gillian Mackay in drafting her member’s bill on safe access zones for abortion services.
The Scottish Government has indicated that, although it may be open to reviewing the law on abortion in the future, it has no immediate plans to amend the Abortion Act 1967.
The committee has also received a submission from the Scottish feminist policy and advocacy organisation Engender, which briefly sets out its argument in support of decriminalising abortion.
Members should also be aware, as highlighted in both the briefing we received from SPICe and the Scottish Government response, that the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 mentioned in the petition does not apply in Scotland.
Do members have any suggestions or comments??
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
David Torrance
Our next new petition is PE1987, on amending the Scotland Act 2016 to automatically trigger a by-election if an MSP or councillor leaves their party, which has been lodged by James Cassidy. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend the Scotland Act 2016 to automatically trigger a by-election by compelling an MSP or councillor to resign if they leave the party that they belonged to when they were elected.
The Scottish Government’s response to the petition states that the terms of membership of the Scottish Parliament are a matter for the Scottish Parliament. On the issue of councillors, the Scottish Government states that it has no current plans to change the electoral system in the way that is called for in the petition.
Do members have any comments or suggestions?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
David Torrance
Thank you for that, colleagues. Do we agree to take that approach?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
David Torrance
Just take your time. It is okay. Do not worry. You have as much time as you want.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
David Torrance
The next item is petition PE1896, on providing every primary school child in Scotland with a reusable water bottle, which was lodged by Callum Isted. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to replace the disposable water bottles that are provided with primary school lunches with sustainable, reusable metal bottles.
We previously considered the petition at our meeting on 23 November 2022, when we agreed to invite the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport to give evidence to the committee. We have instead the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, Lorna Slater, giving evidence on the petition this morning. I thank the minister for coming.
Members have a number of questions that they would like to explore, but first I believe that you have an opening statement, minister.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
David Torrance
Thank you, minister. Several members have questions. I will start.
Has there been any further engagement with local authorities’ directors of education following the cabinet secretary’s letter regarding the issues raised in the petition?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
David Torrance
Do we agree with those recommendations?
Members indicated agreement.
