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 1931 contributions
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Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Draft Joint Fisheries Statement
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Mairi Gougeon
I do not see a particular need at the moment to introduce a specific bill. Objectives were set out in the 2020 act and we are here today to discuss the framework in the JFS and the policy ambitions in that. I also set out last week how we intend to deliver on our fisheries management strategy, which was published towards the end of 2020. I do not know what other specific legal mechanisms we would need to bring forward to enable us to deliver on the policy objectives that we have set out, because I believe that we have the means to do that at the moment.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Draft Joint Fisheries Statement
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Mairi Gougeon
In last year’s debate in Parliament, I set out that we would be looking to introduce new economic link measurements as of the start of 2023. I will provide more detail on that in due course.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Draft Joint Fisheries Statement
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Mairi Gougeon
Some of what you have mentioned will be harnessed in the work that is done around the commitment in the programme for government for the blue economy action plan and the blue economy vision, which I mentioned in my opening statement. That approach recognises the breadth of sectors and interests that we have in our marine environment and ensures that all the strategies and policies across all those areas are aligned and take cognisance of each other, as much as possible. Obviously, we have been undertaking work on aquaculture, and I am sure that you will be aware of that and of the review that we have undertaken in that regard.
A number of strands of work are going on in this area. It is vital that we capture all of that and set out our clear vision for the future and say how all those interests will operate together for a sustainable blue economy.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Draft Joint Fisheries Statement
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Mairi Gougeon
I certainly hope so. Part of the challenge that we face is the balancing of all those different interests. Like you say, inshore fisheries, for example, are hugely important to local economies and communities. Not long ago, I had a meeting with Dr Allan and some of his constituents at which we discussed the impact of those industries on employment and population levels in some of our most remote and rural locations. As I am the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, ensuring that we get a balance that enables people to live in our most remote and island communities is vital to me. I am not saying that I have all the solutions to the issue today, but I understand the complexities that we must balance, and we certainly take them into consideration when we are thinking about those issues.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Draft Joint Fisheries Statement
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Mairi Gougeon
The development of FMPs will be subject to consultation. We will look to develop them through discussion with our stakeholders. We use and engage with a number of fora, whether the FMACs, IFMACs or our regional inshore fisheries groups, so I imagine that they will be part of the process. We want to work with our stakeholders in the production of the FMPs. It is an integral part of the process.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Draft Joint Fisheries Statement
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Mairi Gougeon
It is not as if we develop such measures in isolation and without any engagement. We will look to keep our various stakeholders informed throughout the process. That is partly so that they can work with us. There is no point in developing policies or plans that, fundamentally, will not work or cannot be implemented by the people who are responsible for implementing them. Therefore, that engagement is critical.
We are ambitious and we want to deliver on the objectives that have been set out in the 2020 act and the policies that we have set out that will, ultimately, deliver those objectives. However, we also want to get it right. We want to take the right amount of time to have engagement and deliver the right policy.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Draft Joint Fisheries Statement
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Mairi Gougeon
We would also have to be clear about the benefits or otherwise of such an approach. Given that we have not considered it, that work has not been done.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Draft Joint Fisheries Statement
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Mairi Gougeon
We will be discussing these things with other administrations and working jointly with them as we develop FMPs. I would just note that although we have not set out anything beyond that timescale, the timescales for developing the FMPs set out in the JFS will be very challenging to meet. It is important that we focus on the stocks that we have highlighted as a priority, but that is not to say that there will be no other FMPs. The issue will be subject to review, but I think that that is where we need to focus. Instead of setting out some definitive list of every stock that we would look to consider and the timescales in that respect, we need to focus on this initial set of FMPs.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Draft Joint Fisheries Statement
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Mairi Gougeon
We will be closely monitoring the work on developing FMPs for non-quota stocks that other administrations are leading on. As I have said and as Paul McCarthy has highlighted, that work will be very complex, and it is important that we continue to monitor it before we set out what FMPs we plan to take forward in that area.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Draft Joint Fisheries Statement
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Mairi Gougeon
Of course, that is something that has to be managed. As I said, challenging timescales have been set out for the FMPs in the JFS. Trying to meet those timescales is important, because that is what has been set out in the legislation, but we want to make sure, when we are creating the FMPs, that we are getting that right, that it is not rushed and that we are able to undertake that work in the way that we wish to.
