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
Scottish Benefits Independent Advocacy
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Good morning, panel, and thank you all very much for coming. I really appreciate your taking the time to give evidence today.
Advocacy was one of the key areas when we discussed the Scottish Government bill that led to the 2018 act. Indeed, it was one of the things that we were keen to provide for people in Scotland, and I am grateful for the work that you have done on it so far. Obviously it is still early days, but can you tell us how many people you have supported so far?
I do not know whether Jonathan Senker or Emily Johnston will want to take that one. You can fight it out among yourselves.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Benefits Independent Advocacy
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
How do people find out about your service? Is it via Social Security Scotland or through your website? If I have to make a new claim for the adult disability payment, for example, how do I find out that your organisation can offer this service to me?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Scottish Benefits Independent Advocacy
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
I will come back in later, as I have questions on recruitment, convener, but I will wait until the next theme and rest there.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Good morning. Amendments 137 and 138 simply seek to clarify a particular situation. Last week, the cabinet secretary and a number of members told us that the changes proposed in the bill do not affect what happens with regard to the European convention on human rights. As I have said, the amendments seek to clarify that and provide a way forward if the bill becomes an act.
As we will all be aware, article 9 of the ECHR covers all protected characteristics, and amendment 137 simply states what has previously been stated, which is that nothing will change in that regard. I hope that the cabinet secretary can give some clarification on that.
Amendment 138 seeks to look forward to any regulations that will flow from the bill becoming an act by making it clear that there is no contradiction between article 9 of the ECHR and any regulations that are laid before Parliament. It seeks to provide that if regulations are laid that affect article 9, the affirmative procedure will be used to ensure that the committee and the Parliament can scrutinise them.
I hope that the cabinet secretary will be able to clarify whether these amendments are necessary—they are simply to bring clarification, rather than changing anything specific.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Some of this has been explored, but I want to cover two areas that were brought up in the earlier evidence session today. If the bill is passed by Parliament, you then intend to carry out a co-design process on the regulations and guidance that come out of the bill. Do you and your officials have a timeline in mind for the consultation, drawing up the regulations and introducing them in Parliament for scrutiny?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
With respect, minister, the timeline is your decision, because it will start when the Scottish Government lays the regulations in Parliament. It is not for this committee to scrutinise anything until you have brought it forward, so you are the person who ultimately starts the process. You might not decide how long it will take, but you will fire the starting gun, if I can put it that way. Have you considered that?
The other issue is that the final decision on the content of the regulations that Parliament will scrutinise will be yours. Co-design can take us so far but, ultimately, the decision on what will be put before Parliament will be yours.
For all members, irrespective of their parties, one frustration about scrutinising so many sets of regulations is that we cannot amend them: we have to say either yes or no to them all. As well as engaging with stakeholders, how much engagement on the regulations do you see happening with members of the Scottish Parliament? Will the regulations come to the committee as drafts before you lay them, or will they simply come to us and that will be it?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Thank you, minister.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
I want to go back to how co-design works in practice, which Chris Gehrke and others have talked about. Do you expect that there will be a consultation document that everyone will respond to, after which the Scottish Government will go away and do whatever it wants, or do you think that there could be a much more interactive way of doing it? How would that work in practice?
I will start with Chris Gehrke, because he is not from the central belt. Chris, could you tell us how you envisage things working in your geographical area, so that there is a process of input and testing? Do you know what the timescale will be for how long it will take to get to the point at which the Government is ready to introduce regulations?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
Frank McKillop, how do you see your members engaging, rather than just coming to spend a couple of hours and then walking away? How do we make the process more fluid?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 November 2022
Jeremy Balfour
I am conscious of time, so I will ask a question and see whether I can get a yes, no or do not know answer.
I do not think that the charter would give any new rights. It would clarify the rights that people have, but would not have any legal authority and could not be challenged by an individual or organisation. Should the charter have legal standing so that judicial review can take place, if that is appropriate?
