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: 9 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
That is helpful. Thank you.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 9 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
The committee is being told that no decision has yet been taken about whether children’s services will be included in the bill. Is it fair and reasonable to do that intensive work with children and young people—which, if a human rights-based approach is taken, will include some vulnerable children and children with additional support needs—if what they are expecting might not be the outcome? How do you do that in a way that is fair to them?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 9 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Acknowledging that, can I press you for some examples?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
In a number of evidence sessions, my colleague Bob Doris has raised the importance of the work that colleges do for those people who are furthest away from education. You have just made the point that colleges are not just for feeding students to universities.
That work requires quite a bit of investment. Graeme Dey covered the topic of flexibility around college budgets. Do you agree in principle that, because the funding for more expensive—but high-value—work of that nature can be cut in times of challenge, it is crucial that, in the climate that we are in, in which all budgets are constrained and tested, every flexibility is given to public bodies to deliver those important but often costly services to our citizens?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
The fact that an arrangement is of long standing does not mean that is should remain unchanged. I know that that is not what you are implying, but I thought it important to make that clear. The matter feels important, as those individuals are studying for a profession in which there are shortages—there is certainly a shortage of psychologists in Ayrshire and Arran. We know that meeting the demand for mental health support for children and young people is a challenge, particularly in relation to the provision of educational psychologists. Thank you for noting my comments.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Thank you. I appreciate those answers. I would just say that it feels like the citizens who would use those services are going to be in for a really hard time, so a bit of urgency around that would be appreciated.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Although my question is about university finances, it is more from a student perspective. I believe that I have raised this issue in writing directly with you, minister, and I also raised it in a previous evidence session.
An educational psychology student who does a work placement with a local authority is not classed as a student during that placement and therefore does not have access to council tax reduction or other benefits that the university might provide, such as in relation to a welfare fund or childcare assistance. We are pretty short of educational psychologists. I will not go over all the details—the minister can read the Official Report of the previous session. Is there anything that the Scottish Government can do in respect of students such as the educational psychology students? There are other professions in which a grant is given—I am thinking of midwives and some nurses—so the issue may well affect more than that specific cohort. I am interested in hearing the minister’s views on that.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry
Meeting date: 2 November 2022
Ruth Maguire
Good morning, minister. Articulation is an important tool in widening access. Four out of 10 Scottish index of multiple deprivation entrants to university come through the college route, and, during evidence sessions, principals told us that that is a reflection of the additional credibility that regionalisation has given colleges. The other figure that we were given is that 58 per cent of articulating students are granted advanced standing, which means that they go into the second or third year of their course. One principal said that that would have been impossible 15 years ago, before regionalisation, so it is obviously a success, but do you think that enough is being done, and what more can be done to encourage further progress?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny: Early Learning and Childcare
Meeting date: 26 October 2022
Ruth Maguire
I am interested in hearing from Margot Black on the rurality perspective on choice for parents.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Pre-budget Scrutiny: Early Learning and Childcare
Meeting date: 26 October 2022
Ruth Maguire
We have forgotten how to do hybrid meetings—that is it. I might have been interrupting you too quickly. Were you bringing your colleague in to say specifically what the flexibility involves? That would be helpful. Thank you.
