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.
Criathragan Hide all filters
Displaying 3298 contributions
|
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”
Meeting date: 16 June 2022
Richard Leonard
Okay. We are in the final few minutes of our meeting time. If Willie Coffey does not want to come back in—no, he is okay—Colin Beattie will make a final point or ask a question.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”
Meeting date: 16 June 2022
Richard Leonard
Yes.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”
Meeting date: 16 June 2022
Richard Leonard
We are rapidly running out of time, but I know that there are substantive questions that Craig Hoy and Colin Beattie want to ask. I turn first to Colin Beattie.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”
Meeting date: 16 June 2022
Richard Leonard
Thank you. You are right to say that we will return to the themes that you outlined in your opening statement in the next hour or so, so thank you very much for that.
You will be aware that the Scottish Government has released a large number of emails that give us some sense of things that were going on from 2015 onwards. Can I take you back to August 2015? We have published correspondence from Transport Scotland to Keith Brown, who was the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities at the time. On 20 August 2015, correspondence seeks his approval for Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd to award FMEL shipbuilding contracts of a total cost of £96 million—I think that it went up to £97 million in the next few days—for two new major ferries. Towards the end of that correspondence, reference is made to the potential for a legal challenge from one of the unsuccessful shipyards. The correspondence goes on to state that CMAL was confident that it could defend any challenges in those circumstances, but it also uses the interesting phrase:
“that said, the relationship between Scottish ministers and Ferguson’s owner is well known”.
For the benefit of the committee, can you define the terms of that relationship at that time?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”
Meeting date: 16 June 2022
Richard Leonard
I think that they are, but we are also paying attention to the outcomes here. Here we are, all this time later, and there are still no ferries. This guy may have been the world expert on naval procurement and ferry procurement, but the fact of the matter remains that this contract is two and a half times over budget and five years late.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”
Meeting date: 16 June 2022
Richard Leonard
Thank you. The final point that I would like to put to Mr McColl is that you have at times described this contract as “catastrophic” and you have called it “a fiasco”. Do you share any responsibility for that catastrophe?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”
Meeting date: 16 June 2022
Richard Leonard
Okay. I want to move us on to another area. You talked in your opening statement about why you feel that the contract has gone in the way that it has. If I take you again to the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee’s inquiry, one of the conclusions that it made was that
“... FMEL lacked the appropriate level of design capabilities ... failed to manage the design ... process effectively ... and proceeded to build the vessels before the design had been suitably developed and signed off.”
How do you respond to that conclusion?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”
Meeting date: 16 June 2022
Richard Leonard
What did he say? I am sorry. Does he deny that or accede to it?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”
Meeting date: 16 June 2022
Richard Leonard
Thank you very much indeed.
10:55 Meeting continued in private until 11:33.Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides: Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802”
Meeting date: 16 June 2022
Richard Leonard
Can I stop you there, Mr McColl? You have said, I think, in your evidence to the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee and in the written submission that you have given us that you were concerned about the relationship between the Scottish Government and CMAL.
