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 1653 contributions
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Economy and Fair Work Committee
Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Maggie Chapman
I have a couple of questions for Becca Stacey about money and mental health and the thinking around the support that money advisers receive. Last week, I talked about gatekeeping. Do you have any experience of money advisers not supporting people in the way that we might wish them to, especially under the mental health moratorium, due to their not having the skills, resources or the tools that they need? Do you have experience of that from initiatives that are operating elsewhere?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
“The economic contribution of the Pharmaceuticals Sector in Scotland”
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Maggie Chapman
The report mentions the value of skilled jobs, which is highlighted in the summary at the start. Many of us will try to see a connection between investment in R and D and sustaining skilled jobs. How do we ensure that we have the infrastructure so that those jobs are not sucked into an equivalent of the golden triangle in Scotland, which is the central belt? It would not be a triangle; more of a line.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
“The economic contribution of the Pharmaceuticals Sector in Scotland”
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Maggie Chapman
Yes.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
“The economic contribution of the Pharmaceuticals Sector in Scotland”
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Maggie Chapman
There is maybe not a disconnect, but there is a distinction between that dispersal and what we have been talking about with the focus in institutions in Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
“The economic contribution of the Pharmaceuticals Sector in Scotland”
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Maggie Chapman
Mike, do you want to comment on that, given what you have said about the lack, or mismatch, of investment at certain stages and times in the process?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Maggie Chapman
Thanks for your really helpful answers. You have both indicated clearly the importance of post-legislative scrutiny to cover a whole range of different issues. However, I will leave it there, convener.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
“The economic contribution of the Pharmaceuticals Sector in Scotland”
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Maggie Chapman
I will build on that. We have heard a lot about scaling up and the importance of different types of investment VC as well as public investment to bridge gaps. Do we also need to think about scaling deep and scaling out? We have heard that in the committee before, in other contexts and with regard to other sectors.
George Davidson talked about how we stop people doing the things that they have always done. What is it about the culture that we need to change that is not just about money? What else do we need to do to ensure that we get those roots? In essence, we are talking about the setting down of deep roots around the spin-outs, so that they stick. That is not always about scaling up, but we do not talk about scaling out and scaling deep, so how do you help us to change the conversation and what do you need from us to help to change that conversation?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Maggie Chapman
That is really helpful. I have a question about who refers. It is quite clear in the proposals that the application for a mental health moratorium will go through a money adviser only. Is that okay? Could that mean that there is the potential to miss people who would be eligible but have not found a money adviser or cannot do that for reasons relating to their mental health crisis? Are we potentially missing people who will fall through the net or fall through the cracks in that approach?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Maggie Chapman
Good morning. I thank Becca Stacey and Sarah-Jayne Dunn for joining us.
I will continue the questioning that Colin Smyth started on how we can make the mental health moratorium as effective as possible and on the potential challenges. Sarah-Jayne Dunn, you mentioned the vital role of money advisers and you have direct experience in that area. You alluded to the increased need for such advisers. What are your thoughts on the money advice sector’s capacity to meet potential demand for support? Alongside the bill, what else needs to change or what else needs to be introduced to ensure that there is the right number of money advisers and that they have the support and the resources to be able to do their really important advisory work?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 September 2023
Maggie Chapman
You make the point about the need for connections into the whole piece, rather than just taking money advice as a single issue.
We heard last week from people involved in the commercial money advice sector, who said that they need to be involved, too. What kind of relationship have you had, or does Citizens Advice envisage, with the commercial sector? How do we ensure that there is not a different approach or a different type of service being provided to people who seek their support?
