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 732 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Colleges Regionalisation Inquiry
Meeting date: 5 October 2022
Ruth Maguire
Forgive me for interrupting, but I think that it is always helpful to know specifics. We can all say in general terms that flexibility is helpful, but what would this kind of flexibility look like? What would it mean? What more could be done with it?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 28 September 2022
Ruth Maguire
That is helpful.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 28 September 2022
Ruth Maguire
That is helpful.
Mary, are your members finding that they have to provide more support? You spoke about the widening access agenda, but, with mental health and wellbeing, that support will be across the board. Are your members having to do more?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 28 September 2022
Ruth Maguire
Good morning, panel, and thanks for being with us. I want to ask about the cost of living crisis. I have a specific example of a constituent of mine who is studying at the University of Dundee to be an educational psychologist. Students in that cohort receive a living costs grant, so the situation is slightly different from that of other students. However, he has spoken to me about the fact that students on the course work four days a week for a local authority. During that time, they are not classed as students, so they are taxed on their living support grant. They do not receive any other student benefits, such as a reduction in council tax. The bit that perhaps applies to all students in what he tells me is about students being forced to turn down placements and opportunities due to lack of funds for travel, petrol and so on. He says that some are choosing not to travel to lectures because of the financial hardship that they face.
I would like to hear from Ellie Gomersall first. What are your members telling you about the impact that it is having on their ability to study?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 28 September 2022
Ruth Maguire
Thank you, convener. I thank the witnesses for being with us—I have appreciated their contributions so far.
I asked the first panel about the cost of living crisis and the specific impact on students. I highlighted an example of a constituent and the impact on the university experience of their cohort, with placement opportunities being turned down and occasionally students not being able to travel to lectures. Could George Boyne respond to that? Do you see that impact in your own university and among the universities that you represent?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 28 September 2022
Ruth Maguire
The specific example that I raised was of a cohort that receive living cost grants, and the issue was about them not being classed as students when they are on their placements. Have you come across that situation, and can you think of any potential solutions?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 28 September 2022
Ruth Maguire
Thank you. That is helpful. I will move on.
I am interested in hearing your reflections on the impact of the cost of living crisis on staff.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 28 September 2022
Ruth Maguire
Does Karen Watt wish to say anything?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 28 September 2022
Ruth Maguire
Ellie Gomersall spoke about the impact on mental health and wellbeing, which will go for staff as well. What are the barriers to supporting students through that? What help is available and what are the barriers?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Universities
Meeting date: 28 September 2022
Ruth Maguire
I think that colleagues will ask more about that later.
