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 1492 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Jamie Greene
Is it the plan that, using intelligence, the police will stop and search prior to entry to the stadium? If fireworks, pyrotechnics, flares or other devices are found on persons, will they be denied entry and the items removed, or will the items be removed but the persons still be allowed entry to the football game? I ask in order to be clear.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Jamie Greene
Would they actually be charged at that time?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Jamie Greene
I am sure that we will all support that.
In the policy briefings that came with the SSIs, the sections on the financial effects for each instrument state:
“The Minister for Community Safety confirms that ... the instrument has no financial effects on the Scottish Government, local government or on business.”
I have two questions on that. First, multiple ministers have claimed that the financial effects of the legislation were the cause of the delay. That seems to contradict what we are asked to do today. Clearly, there is a financial effect, so I refer to the passing of the act in 2022. What did the financial memorandum claim as the forecasted cost of the legislation? Has it crept up since then? If so, will you provide some numbers? If you do not have that information to hand, I will be happy for you to write to the committee.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Jamie Greene
Given how difficult it is to bring charges and achieve convictions and successful prosecutions, and that we already have a wide-ranging set of laws prohibiting misuse of such devices, would the Government support a lengthy or lifetime ban from entering a football stadium anywhere in Scotland as a deterrent or incentive not to bring devices into sporting stadiums? Will the Government actively discuss that with clubs?
10:15Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Jamie Greene
I dare say. We heard lots of evidence on some of the localised issues. Do you not think that there may be slight confusion among the public, because they are getting the legislation in a very piecemeal way? There was the aggravator offence around attacking emergency service workers, which I will not go into today. There was the banning of sale to minors, then the firework control zones, then the banning of pyrotechnics and flares. Then there is the restricted sale, purchase and use. All that is taking place at different times and in different places. Is there a risk that we are undermining the underlying objective of the legislation by causing confusion around what people can and cannot do? A lot of people simply do not know what the rules are.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Jamie Greene
That is great.
I have questions on a few other bits and bobs. The first is about the public awareness campaign. The provisions will commence in June this year, but the committee passed the bill last year. Would it not have been helpful to start the public awareness campaign a little earlier? Is there any reason why it has been delayed until after the commencement of the legislation?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Jamie Greene
My final question is on firework control zones, the introduction of which you mentioned is imminent. How many local authorities will introduce firework control zones? I recall that that was quite a meaty part of the legislation and much of the feedback from local authorities and their representative bodies was that it would come at a cost to them. I appreciate that you will introduce that legislation before summer recess and I am sure that we will have time to talk about it then, but that is not far away. What preparatory work has taken place in conjunction with local authorities to assist them financially to set up the zones and to run any local public awareness campaigns? Do we have any idea how many fireworks control zones there will be this coming year and where they might be?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Jamie Greene
Just to be clear, the financial memorandum also states that there will be no effect on business. I know that we are drip feeding the instruments to commence the legislation and that the restriction on the sale and purchase will not be until, I presume, 2025 or thereafter. There will be no compensation scheme in place until then. Is that correct?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Jamie Greene
I will try to rattle through my questions. Welcome to the committee, minister; congratulations on your appointment.
I want to first address the issue of pyrotechnics and flare misuse at sporting events, particularly football matches, which are clearly the most high-profile events that have been reported in the media. The existing legislation—the 1995 act—makes it illegal for pyrotechnics to be taken into sporting events, but it is clear that it is failing, otherwise we would not need to afford the police more powers. Can you explain the difference between what is already legal in football stadiums and what will happen in June, for the benefit of people who attend such venues?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Jamie Greene
It is not difficult to see who is letting off pyrotechnics. They are on camera and there are security guards around the stadium. The police must have a fair amount of intelligence on the individuals who are routinely responsible for that. I mention that because it is not only individuals; there seems to be a concerted and collective effort to let off flares at specific points during or before games. We have also seen the unfurling of banners related to the pyrotechnics issue.
What consultation has the Scottish Government had with football clubs, the Scottish Football Association and supporters organisations? Clearly, there is an underlying problem that is not limited to individuals breaking the law; events are clearly co-ordinated. How on earth will the police tackle the sheer volume of people who are letting off pyrotechnics?
