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 成人快手 and committees will automatically update to show only the 成人快手 and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of 成人快手 and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of 成人快手 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 1811 contributions
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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Correspondence (Proxy Voting)
Meeting date: 29 September 2022
Martin Whitfield
That is helpful. The committee has strongly backed iterative change with regard to the development of hybrid meetings, and it would be helpful if the trial were to incorporate something that could be looked at in that regard as matters progress.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Correspondence (Proxy Voting)
Meeting date: 29 September 2022
Martin Whitfield
If the relationship between the person who grants the proxy and the person who casts it was abused in that way鈥攁lbeit never to prejudge a situation鈥攖he requirement in the code of conduct not to be discourteous or disrespectful would seem to apply fully fairly and squarely. The relationship between the person who holds the proxy and the one who has granted it has to be based on trust. That is one of the fundamental principles of the Parliament. I imagine that there would be comeback, probably in many forms.
Similarly, in situations both in this session and in previous sessions where a vote has been cast in the wrong way, it has always been available to a member to put their intent on the record, through a point of order. Obviously, that does not change the count of the vote at the time, because of the need for certainty.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Correspondence (Proxy Voting)
Meeting date: 29 September 2022
Martin Whitfield
It is interesting that you make those two points at the same time. We know that, with stage 3 amendments, there will not be time to pop out and have lengthy phone calls about how to exercise a proxy vote. The responsibility is based on a relationship of trust.
In relation to how many proxies members can hold and whether they are doing the right thing by holding more than one, we heard very strong evidence that proxy voting must not be used to create a block vote, which has happened in other Parliaments. I do not think that we heard any evidence in support of block voting. Indeed, some people who were able to vote in that way were adamant that they did not want to have the ability to exercise a block vote. I agree on that.
Mention has been made of people not being able to have a proxy vote for more than two members. Given the current set-up of the parties and the fact that there are no independent members in Parliament in this session, that would work for all the parties. Certainly for the trial period, two seems to be a sensible number. It might be the case that someone who holds two proxies says that it is just too hard and that it should be possible to hold only one. We can look at that at the end of the session.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Correspondence (Proxy Voting)
Meeting date: 29 September 2022
Martin Whitfield
As you said, we should ensure that that engagement continues. Are we content with that?
Members indicated agreement.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Correspondence (Proxy Voting)
Meeting date: 29 September 2022
Martin Whitfield
As we have discussed, the last issue comes back to what happens when it goes wrong. There is a very high onus of trust and honesty on people when they become an MSP. I am quite taken by the suggestions from Edward and Bob to include something in the guidance to remind members of the high level of expectation on them and the fact that, when one member holds a proxy, the relationship of trust between two people goes above and beyond the role of the individual MSP.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 8 September 2022
Martin Whitfield
I can confirm that. Even if that were the intention at this stage, we could still overrule that at a later meeting in order to hold in public an evidence session or, indeed, our consideration.
Are members content to take agenda items 4, 5 and 6 in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Cross-Party Groups
Meeting date: 8 September 2022
Martin Whitfield
That is very helpful.
I note from the completed registration form that a number of existing CPGs that cover some but not all of the intended purposes of the proposed CPG have been identified. I appreciate the evidence that you have given on outreach with regard to stakeholders and other 成人快手. Has there been any formal contact yet with existing CPGs about the potential for joint work?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Cross-Party Groups
Meeting date: 8 September 2022
Martin Whitfield
I thank you for your comment on the responsibility that you and your office would have with regard to the CPG. We might address that aspect at the end of the meeting, although not specifically in relation to your proposed CPG.
Do members have any questions?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Cross-Party Groups
Meeting date: 8 September 2022
Martin Whitfield
Excellent.
Thank you for attending this morning. The committee will consider the application at its next agenda item, and the clerks will notify you in due course. I wish you all the very best for the rest of today.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Cross-Party Groups
Meeting date: 8 September 2022
Martin Whitfield
Would you like to explain the purposes and ideas behind your proposed CPG?
