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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Public Audit Committee
Deputy Convener
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Richard Leonard
The next item on the agenda is the election of the deputy convener. Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party are eligible for nomination for that position. I understand that that party has nominated Sharon Dowey for the post.
Sharon Dowey was chosen as deputy convener.
Public Audit Committee
Deputy Convener
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Richard Leonard
Congratulations on your election as the deputy convener of the Public Audit Committee, Sharon.
Public Audit Committee
Legacy Paper
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Richard Leonard
Again, that is a well-made point. There will be new funding instruments to support agriculture and replace EU structural funds, the European social fund and so on. Some of the details still remain to be seen, but I absolutely think that it should be the committee’s job to scrutinise how that funding is being applied and whether reforms or improvements could be made. It is important that we understand that a huge change is taking place as a result of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and what that means for the landscape that people face.
I thank members for their contributions. It is important that we got some of those points on the record in public session. As previously agreed, we will discuss our work programme in private. I think that we are all clear that the legacy paper from the session 5 committee will form an important starting point for us in considering what our work programme will be in the short-term and medium-term future.
I look forward to a constructive and productive working relationship with members, and I bring the public session of the meeting to a close.
09:51 Meeting continued in private until 10:30.Public Audit Committee
Legacy Paper
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Richard Leonard
There is a clear sense that we will be in very challenging times, especially for the public sector, and that organisations, from the national health service to the court system, will be under incredible strain. The Auditor General for Scotland has identified the importance of understanding the pressures that there will be to ensure that, despite those pressures, good governance, proper working practices, workforce planning and investments that are made are effective. We will return to that.
I was struck, too, by the sense that the previous committee understood that we are not dealing with people who come before us on a case-by-case basis. There are often common themes that run through things and systemic failures that need to be tackled. It is important that we, too, have the broader understanding that we are sometimes dealing with pretty fundamental failings in the way that organisations are approaching their remits and that those failings can be common across the public sector. We need to understand that there are, at times, common themes that we need to pursue, and we need to ensure that lessons are learned not just by the single organisation before us but throughout the public sector.
The recommendation that we consider international experience is really important. I am keen that we pursue that when we discuss the work programme.
Public Audit Committee
Legacy Paper
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Richard Leonard
That is an extremely well-made point.
The legacy paper mentions the defensiveness of some of the accountable officers who have come before the committee. I hope that we see a change in approach from people who are brought before the committee to give evidence.
We have a job to do. We are here to serve the interests of Parliament and the people, and we will do whatever is required in order to do that. However, it is important that we have oversight of what happens in the future, not just oversight of an issue, or, sometimes, a crisis that has arisen. We need to have a longer-term reach.
Public Audit Committee
Legacy Paper
Meeting date: 23 June 2021
Richard Leonard
The next item that we have to consider is the legacy paper, which was circulated in advance of the meeting.
I place on record our thanks to the session 5 Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee for its legacy report. I am conscious of the fact that two members of the committee in this session were members of that committee and that they played a part in putting together the legacy paper. It is clear that the legacy paper will be an important part of the consideration that we need to give to our work programme.
I invite any member of the committee who has any comments on, or who wishes to add anything in connection with, the legacy paper to indicate that they want to speak.
