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 ˿ and committees will automatically update to show only the ˿ and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of ˿ and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of ˿ 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 1442 contributions
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Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
Yes.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
I would just like to thank the committee for its time, and I look forward to receiving your report.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
We are working on the detail of that now; we are in discussion about that.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
The bill seeks to take a risk-based and proportionate approach. The categorisation of the regulator has implications in respect of the operation of its regulatory functions. For example, a category 1 regulator must delegate its regulatory functions to an independent regulatory committee and establish a client protection fund, whereas category 2 regulators would not have such duties.
It is considered important that the bill contains a mechanism to alter the category of an existing or new regulator, should there be a significant change in how a regulator meets the relevant criteria under section 8(6). In order to strengthen the safeguards there, we intend to introduce amendments whereby the Lord President’s consent would be required before any changes are made to the regulatory category of a regulator.
We are also considering amendments that would limit the scope of how such changes may be sought by limiting that to being done at the request of certain bodies such as the regulators or the consumer panel.
In addition, there may be scope for a new regulator to enter the market, which may require consideration of its categorisation or a change to that categorisation in respect of changing circumstances. For example, the Association of Construction Attorneys has only six people in it, so we do not feel that it would be appropriate for it to be in category 1, given all the duties that are put on category 1 compared with category 2.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
The power allows for changes to a regulator’s functions. Where that relates to a regulator whose regulatory scheme was approved by virtue of the 1990 act, or for future regulators that achieve accreditation by virtue of the bill, that may be done via direction. That is not considered possible for existing regulators whose regulatory functions are set out in primary legislation, such as the Law Society and the Faculty of Advocates. It is considered, in such a case, that regulations are the most appropriate way to make changes. I will give an example. If it was considered that the Law Society had failed to properly regulate conveyancing or executry practitioners, that function could be used.
The power is also designed to be applied when a category 1 or category 2 regulator has not observed the regulatory objectives. Having considered stakeholders’ feedback, we intend to lodge amendments at stage 2 to transfer the responsibilities in sections 19 and 20 to the Lord President. We are also giving consideration to amending the sections so that regulations may be introduced only on the recommendation of the Lord President. As an additional safeguard, we are also considering whether the Lord President should have to give consent to any draft regulations before they can be laid in Parliament.
I have listened carefully to the concerns of the legal sector. Even though Esther Roberton, who appeared before the committee last week or the week before, wanted an independent regulator, she did not consider it appropriate to have any ministerial interference. I am listening carefully to such views, which is why we are considering those amendments.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
Yes, the matter has been raised with me. As you know, it is not possible for the Scottish ministers or the Scottish Government to intervene in or comment on individual legal matters. However, I will be happy to meet you to discuss the issue.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
Since the bill has been introduced, there have been on-going discussions with stakeholders, the Lord President and the judiciary about that. We are still at stage 1, so we have a bit to go, but as we move forward through the parliamentary process, we will be happy to provide further detail. At the moment, we are still working on the detail.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
I do not. I will bring in my officials, but since the introduction of the bill, we have shown a willingness and an openness to work with the judiciary and stakeholders and to consider amendments prior to stage 2, so I do not agree with you.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Siobhian Brown
Yes. Talks are on-going with all stakeholders and the legal sector.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Siobhian Brown
Good morning, convener, and good morning, committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee about the Legal Aid and Advice and Assistance (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) (No 4) Regulations 2023.
The instrument has been brought forward to deliver changes to existing legal aid regulations, primarily to ensure continuing access to justice in Scotland. It makes provision to ensure that legal advice and assistance will be available to persons arrested under section 27 of the National Security Act 2023. Schedule 6 of that act will, if commenced, create a procedural framework for the arrest of persons reasonably suspected to be involved in “foreign power threat activity”.
Current provision for legal advice and assistance does not cover all the circumstances of detention for such activity, and the regulations will make further provision to ensure that an appropriate regime is in place so that advice and assistance by way of representation can be provided to persons arrested under these provisions in the 2023 act. Without additional provision, there is a risk of persons arrested under the 2023 act being unable to access legal advice, assistance or representation. Similar provision is already in place for those detained under anti-terrorism legislation.
The instrument will also make provision for any carer support payment to be disregarded by the Scottish Legal Aid Board when assessing a person’s financial eligibility for civil legal aid, or children’s legal assistance, and for such payments to be excluded from the recovery where a person has a liability to the Scottish legal aid fund as a result of civil legal aid proceedings. Carer support payment is intended to improve outcomes for unpaid carers by providing financial assistance to those providing regular and substantial care to someone in receipt of a qualifying disability benefit.
Finally, the instrument makes minor amendments and corrections to regulations relating to counsel fees in respect of civil and criminal legal aid.
Convener, that was a brief overview of the regulations and their context. I am happy to answer questions.
