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 1198 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Just to push you on that again, minister, have you had discussions with your ministerial colleagues in London about the transfer of information? Have you discussed it with your counterpart in the DWP?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Jeremy Balfour
I appreciate that. My question was just on whether we could get that particular figure. Thank you for your response.
My final question is on something that you and I have discussed, both when you were a member of the committee and since you have been minister—your Government’s view on extending the child winter heating assistance to disabled adults. Obviously, many adults who are in receipt of some kind of award—say, for mobility or for care—will not receive the winter heating payment, but often, they will be at home more and have higher heating costs. Is there any policy intention to include disabled adults, too, obviously not this year but maybe the next? Is it something that the Government would like to do in the next two or three years?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
Jeremy Balfour
I was interested in your opening remark that this is not the time to do it—or that the capacity is not there to do it at the moment. I am sorry if I have misquoted you. Why do you think that that is the case? Is it because there is too much happening in Social Security Scotland for it to take that on as well? Where is the capacity issue as far as you are concerned?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
Jeremy Balfour
I have a quick question for Dr Simpson. The Scottish Government argues that most people will gain under the proposals, but it recognises that some will not. Have you done any analysis of who will gain and—perhaps more important—who will lose out under the regulations? Is that simply a geographical question, or is it an issue to do with disability as well?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Thank you. Convener, you will be glad to hear that it is my last question and I will be brief.
I will go back to Frazer Scott’s earlier comment that February is not the right month for people to get the payment. I understand why you think that, but can you suggest which month would be appropriate for that payment?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
Jeremy Balfour
I ask the same question of Mark Simpson. Do you or the commission have a view on that?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
Jeremy Balfour
I have a couple of questions that build on what we have discussed. They are about eligibility criteria—in particular, around those who have a disability. Some people are on disability payments but not on other benefits. Are you concerned that they will miss out, and would you like the criteria to be extended to all adults who are on the new disability living allowance?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Thank you.
Mark, I will rephrase the question slightly for you because, in recommendation 9 of your report, you picked up the point that those who are on the new adult disability payment but who receive in-work benefits will not get the payment. Is that a concern for you? Would you like the Scottish Government to reconsider that? If so, why?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 December 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Good morning, panel. I want to go back to Frazer Scott with a question that follows on from my colleagues’ questions.
Next week, all that we can do is vote yes or no for the regulations, and I suspect that we will all vote yes. Looking ahead, however, if you could have another year to help to redesign the regulations—you would have six to nine months—what would you say to the committee and to the Scottish Government about how to improve them? Could we do that through the payment, or would it be better if the Government indicated that it would create a new benefit, which it has the power to do? Should the regulations be amended or should a new benefit be created?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Benefits Independent Advocacy
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
In your model, where do expect to be at this time next year, say, with regard to the number of advocates that you have in Scotland?
