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 847 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2025
Jenny Gilruth
That is the advice that I, as cabinet secretary, have been provided with. I am happy to bring in officials on that point, but when it comes to public appointments, there are certain requirements and duties that ministers have to fulfil. Those things take time. We have to move forward to ensure that there is an operational board, but I do not detract from your points on, for example, trade union membership of the board. I have been open to engaging on that issue. Currently, as the bill has been drafted, there is no such provision, but Pam Duncan-Glancy is well aware that I have made it clear that I will work with committee members on a range of issues that they might have, in that regard.
09:45My other point is that recruitment takes time. As you heard from Clare Hicks, it can take many months. I will be in front of the committee two weeks after recess, but to provide some reassurance to members, we could write to the committee on the timescales that are associated with public advertising of vacancies and ensure that the Government reflects on the committee’s asks in relation to amendments to be agreed at stage 2.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Scottish Attainment Challenge: Post-inquiry Scrutiny
Meeting date: 12 March 2025
Jenny Gilruth
We do not gather the data in that way.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2025
Jenny Gilruth
I think that some of the appointments are time limited. I will bring in Clare on those points.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Scottish Attainment Challenge: Post-inquiry Scrutiny
Meeting date: 12 March 2025
Jenny Gilruth
We will take that away, convener.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2025
Jenny Gilruth
I will bring in Clare Hicks to talk about the Ethical Standards Commissioner’s role in the process. Important decisions need to be taken about how we advertise and how the process is conducted. There are risks inherent in our not adhering to the ethical appointments process.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Scottish Attainment Challenge: Post-inquiry Scrutiny
Meeting date: 12 March 2025
Jenny Gilruth
Potentially, but I must be very careful, convener, because of the rules on ONS classification in relation to direct support. I do not think that it would be appropriate for me to say any more until we have received the advice from the SFC.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2025
Jenny Gilruth
Good morning, and thank you for inviting me to discuss the draft Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003 (Treatment of Qualifications Scotland as Specified Authority) Order 2025.
If the order is approved, it will allow ministers to make early appointments to the board of qualifications Scotland, which is an essential step in ensuring that the new qualifications body has a fully functioning board in time for its establishment in autumn this year and delivery of the 2026 exam diet.
I take the opportunity to put on record my thanks to Fiona Robertson for her leadership of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and for her many years of service to education. The SQA has now put in place interim arrangements to ensure continued delivery, and preparations for a full, fair and open process to appoint the SQA chief executive are well under way.
Back in November last year, as the chair of the SQA mentioned in her recent evidence to the committee, changes were made to the SQA’s board to ensure that it would be better able to support the establishment of qualifications Scotland. At that time, five appointments were made, including the appointment of members with experience of teaching in schools and colleges. Those appointments are already supporting the establishment of qualifications Scotland and—which is important—the work to support the organisation to transform how it engages and operates across the education and skills system.
Subject to the agreement of the Parliament, the Education (Scotland) Bill will ensure that the SQA chair is able to transfer to become the chair of qualifications Scotland. It will also enable a number of members of the SQA board to transfer. Those arrangements are critical in providing a smooth transition to the new body and supporting the implementation of the new membership model, as required by the Education (Scotland) Bill.
The revised model for board membership and new governance and accountability mechanisms will provide a more robust platform for delivery, which will ensure that the organisation’s decisions are more directly shaped by the views and experiences of teachers, college practitioners and pupils alike.
To build on the measures that are set out in the bill, the Scottish Government has also provided funding to the SQA for secondment of a secondary school headteacher, who will act as an adviser to the organisation and lead a new dedicated schools unit. That senior role will support the organisation to ensure that it is able to rebuild trust and confidence with Scotland’s teachers. I am pleased to say that the SQA will announce the successful candidate early next week.
As we move towards the establishment of qualifications Scotland, it is crucial that our qualifications body is able, now and in the future, to demonstrate leadership that inspires trust, confidence and transparency.
In order to begin the process of appointing new board members, I commend the order to the committee. I am happy to answer questions.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2025
Jenny Gilruth
I might defer to Clare Hicks, but my understanding is that there would be a substantial delay to the appointment process if that were to happen. I am happy to bring my officials in on that.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2025
Jenny Gilruth
Nico, do you want to come in on the first point?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Scottish Attainment Challenge: Post-inquiry Scrutiny
Meeting date: 12 March 2025
Jenny Gilruth
We see that even when extrapolating poverty.
