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
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
David Torrance
Good morning. Since the legislation came into force, birds have been restricted in doing what they naturally do and your captive birds are not allowed to hunt mountain hares. How has that affected their welfare?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
David Torrance
It is a very difficult situation if the Scottish Government is not going to move on the matter at all. I wonder whether we could write to the Government, highlighting the recommendations of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales. We could ask that it consults on the introduction of legislation that places certain individuals—mandated reporters—under a statutory duty to report child sexual abuse, and that it considers the need for and value of a child protection authority for Scotland.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
David Torrance
The Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce recommends that the MATS should be embedded by May 2024. Is the Scottish Government on course to meet that? If not, how much work is still to be done?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
David Torrance
Considering that the UK Climate Change Committee recommends a reduction of meat consumption rather than a ban on production; that the Scottish Government’s climate change plan update sets out a plan for a 24 per cent reduction in overall emissions from the agriculture category by 2032; that banning meat production may have negative environmental and economic consequences; and that the Scottish Government has stated that it continues to actively promote the consumption of fresh, local and seasonal produce, I suggest that the committee consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
David Torrance
In light of the Scottish Government’s response and there being no plans to reintroduce the right-to-buy scheme for council tenants, I think that there is nothing that the committee can do but close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
David Torrance
The committee could consider writing to Police Scotland, seeking information on the number of threatening and abusive behaviour offences that have been recorded in each year over the past decade and whether the data can be broken down by occupation and workplace. The committee could also write to the Scottish Taxi Federation and Unite Scotland to seek their views on the petition.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
David Torrance
Okay. If that is the case, would the committee like to ask the petitioner and the SPSO to give evidence to members?
I also have another, rather lengthy, ask. Could we write to the SPSO on the issues raised in the petition, including its approach to the handling and consideration of evidence and the rationale for not reviewing its decisions when complaints are upheld? Could we also write to the Scottish Government to clarify its view on the need for, or the desirability of, a review of the SPSO after 20 years of operation, and ask whether it considers that its processes and safeguards in relation to the SPSO are sufficient and effective? Finally, could we ask the Government whether it considers that the legislation governing the SPSO is fit for purpose, whether it would benefit from a review and what revisions might be required?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 26 October 2022
David Torrance
Considering that there is another parliamentary committee working in this area, I would like to refer the petition to the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee for it to consider as part of its work on inshore fisheries issues.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 26 October 2022
David Torrance
As the consultation has been published and the cabinet secretary has indicated that there are no plans to abolish school uniforms or mandate specific school uniforms, I do not think that we can take the petition any further. I would like to close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 26 October 2022
David Torrance
The committee should keep the petition open until the fourth national planning framework is finalised and approved, so that we can see an updated version. We should also write to the Royal Town Planning Institute, Homes for Scotland and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to seek their views on the issues raised in the petition.
