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 1169 contributions
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Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 November 2021
Tom Arthur
Yes.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 November 2021
Tom Arthur
It is important to remember that supplementary estimates come so late in our cycle—I think that it is normally around February—that, were we to be faced with negative consequentials, we would have a very small window in which to try to reconcile them before the end of the financial year. Therefore, as part of prudent budget management, we have to be able to manage any emerging pressures. Unfortunately, that is simply a reflection of the way in which the current system operates.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 November 2021
Tom Arthur
Again, that goes back to the issue of delivery. For example, I know that the committee has previously raised the question of the transfer from the health line to education for the delivery of nursing and midwifery. That is a reflection of the earlier point that we made about policy decisions being taken in a portfolio and funding being allocated to the portfolio in which the responsibility for delivery lies.
I do not know whether there is anything further to add to that.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 November 2021
Tom Arthur
I do not have that specific detail in front of me. Would you be content if I were to write back to the committee about that?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 November 2021
Tom Arthur
I will confirm with my officials whether we have that information.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 November 2021
Tom Arthur
It is fair to say that. That is reflected in our asks for the fiscal framework review. I am sure that the convener has noted that our capital borrowing limits do not take into account inflation. We could improve the situation in a range of ways, and the fiscal framework review provides an opportunity to do that.
To echo what the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy said when she appeared before the committee, I say that I hope that the Government can count on the support of the committee and the Parliament for productive engagement with the UK Government to resolve issues and ensure that our fiscal framework meets our requirements for delivering our priorities.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 9 November 2021
Tom Arthur
I do. As the committee will be aware, our budget resource is allocated to the portfolio that has policy responsibility, and then in year it is transferred where required to the relevant portfolio where delivery takes place. That has been a routine feature of autumn budget revisions for over a decade, as you will be aware, given your tenure on previous finance committees. What we see in the autumn budget revision today is a continuation of that long-standing practice.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 October 2021
Tom Arthur
I apologise to Ms White if I did not answer the question. The revised code received broad support. The particular issues that were raised, which are available in the consultation document, were considered and were incorporated by tightening the language in the code. If possible, I will bring in Ian Thomson to expand on that and address the points that you raise.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 October 2021
Tom Arthur
I am certainly happy to respond to the committee by then and will endeavour to give the fullest answer that I can. I am very grateful to the committee for its probing questions and scrutiny, which have exposed some areas that perhaps had not been considered before. In particular, I am sure that a number of us will want to reflect on the issues that Mr Mountain raised in his line of questioning with regard to not just the code for councillors and the model code for members of public bodies but the MSP code. I am grateful for the committee’s contribution and I am happy to write back to you ahead of the date that you have referred to.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 October 2021
Tom Arthur
I reiterate that I am grateful to the committee for its consideration of the model code. As I indicated, I will write a response as soon as possible and certainly ahead of the date that you indicated is required. We will seek to address the points that Mr Mountain raised and provide clarity on them where possible.
