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 łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees will automatically update to show only the łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of łÉČËżěĘÖ 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 893 contributions
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Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of South Lanarkshire College”
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Craig Hoy
After what appears to have been quite a protracted period during which the audit and risk committee and the board did not meet, they both did so in November 2021. What was the catalyst for those meetings resuming, and, in your view, are the board and the audit and risk committee now meeting regularly?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of South Lanarkshire College”
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Craig Hoy
The audit body recommended that
“the college should reduce or extend the tenure of some members to provide for improved continuity of membership at the end of individuals’ tenure”
and said that that is being considered by the college. Will you provide some detail on how the college is taking that recommendation forward, and on the timescale for achievement?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of South Lanarkshire College”
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Craig Hoy
At the point at which the auditor signed their opinion—in March 2022—papers for the college’s board and committee meetings that were held after June 2021 were not publicly available on the college’s website. However, by 31 July 2022—the date that the convener alluded to—the college was compliant with that aspect of the code. It therefore sounds as though things have improved. To what extent, though, did the college take prompt action on that recommendation? Do you have any concerns that it was too slow in meeting it?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of South Lanarkshire College”
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Craig Hoy
That is fine. Thank you.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 report: “Early Learning and Childcare: Progress on delivery of the 1,140 hours expansion”
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Craig Hoy
I think that, earlier, Sophie Flemig used the phrase “anecdotal evidence” in relation to what is happening in the marketplace at the moment. I get the impression that the independent sector is squeezed and that, given that providers do not feel that they are being adequately funded for providing care, the expansion in care means that their opportunity to turn a profit, which is effectively why they are in the sector in the first place, is, in effect, being squeezed into wraparound after-hours provision and breakfast clubs. To what extent do you get the impression that private sector providers are starting to shut their doors and move out of delivering that provision? Is there a risk that that will feed through to put more pressure on councils to provide it?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 report: “Early Learning and Childcare: Progress on delivery of the 1,140 hours expansion”
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Craig Hoy
Good morning, Mr Boyle. The legislation and the associated statutory guidance place an emphasis on flexibility and choice for parents in accessing early learning and childcare, but the degree of choice is very much determined by local authorities. Will you flesh out a little bit the extent to which parents can access early learning and childcare outside their local authority, if that local authority does not give the flexibility and choice or the patterns of childcare that they might need?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 report: “Early Learning and Childcare: Progress on delivery of the 1,140 hours expansion”
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Craig Hoy
You have slightly pre-empted my next question. For remote and rural areas, childminding is a critical part of provision. To give an example, the Scottish Childminding Association has said that the workforce in the Scottish Borders has declined by 43 per cent over the past six years, that that could double by 2026 and that, at present, 386 families are affected by 56 businesses having withdrawn from the sector. Obviously, that will have major implications in those rural areas. To what extent is childminding, which is already a Cinderella service, at risk in Scotland as a result of the 1,140?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 report: “Early Learning and Childcare: Progress on delivery of the 1,140 hours expansion”
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Craig Hoy
Scottish Borders Council funded a childminding link worker. The childminding sector told me that that was vital to its operation. That funding has been withdrawn because of the pressures that local authorities face. To what extent does the wider financial environment in councils put at risk, for example, link or outreach workers who operate between councils and the independent, voluntary and third sectors? Could that also mean that greater pressures will wash back up on councils?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 report: “Early Learning and Childcare: Progress on delivery of the 1,140 hours expansion”
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Craig Hoy
I wonder whether councils are basically providing what they can provide under the financial constraints, instead of looking at what parents actually need.
Given that councils, which are both providers and rule setters, determine the rates for the private, voluntary and independent—or PVI—sector, is there perhaps a contradiction or a conflict of interest in the whole system that the Scottish Government has overlooked?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 report: “Early Learning and Childcare: Progress on delivery of the 1,140 hours expansion”
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Craig Hoy
I should have asked this question earlier. In relation to the dynamic within the sector, is any work under way to assess whether, even though the independent sector is still quite large, there has been consolidation of ownership, with small independently owned and managed nurseries selling up to bigger, more commoditised companies with a cookie cutter approach? Is there market fragility partly because ownership is in far fewer hands now?
