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 732 contributions
|
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Convener, my next question will probably not surprise you. I think that everyone would subscribe to the idea that we need to prevent problems before they happen; the real challenge is moving finance and resource from crisis to prevention. How will the national care service help us to do that?
10:30Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
That is helpful.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Good morning, ministers. I will direct my questions to the Minister for Children and Young People. The committee met in private with organisations that work with and represent children and young people, including care-experienced children and young people, those affected by domestic abuse, children and young people in conflict with the law, neurodivergent children and young people, and young carers.
Reflecting on the current situation in children’s services, I think that we would all recognise that good work is on-going but, according to some of the feedback that we have received, families are being bounced around the system and a rights-focused approach has not been adopted across the piece. We have been told about organisational gatekeeping; about children, young people and families often having to prove extreme need in order to access services; about there being no shared language between organisations on occasion; and about responsibility shifting from organisation to organisation.
We have had integration for more than 10 years now, so how will a national care service that covers children’s services make those experiences better for children and families? How will we ensure that a rights-based approach is taken?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Okay. That probably shows the need for us all to reflect on children and families rather than organisations.
It would be good to hear from some of the other witnesses.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Good morning. I had some questions about structure, but I think that you have covered that issue pretty well in your answers about the importance of leadership and the issue of culture versus structure. I also hear Jude Currie loud and clear when she talks about her members feeling depleted if navigating around the structures takes more energy than doing the job itself.
One aspect of leadership and culture that we have not talked about is accountability. What risks and opportunities do you see in the proposal to move accountability for children’s services from local authorities to Scottish Government ministers?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
I am interested in how your model supports local accountability, flexibility and more joined-up services. I would like some examples of how that is working from the perspective of children and families in Highland.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
How long has your system of integration been in place?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
I wonder whether, looking back at the integration of health and social care, Barnardo’s Scotland might have any reflections on potential risks.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
I was using the language of politicians—or, I should say, policy making. Given that we are going to be in the business of realising people’s rights, can you see any opportunities in the chain of accountability—I cannot think of another word to use for it—being to the Scottish Government and Scottish ministers rather than to local authorities?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Jude, I want to stick with you for my next question. With any change come risks as well as opportunities. Reflecting on the change that we saw with the integration of health and social care services, what do you think are the short, medium and long-term risks to families and children who access such services?
