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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 825 contributions
|
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill
Meeting date: 13 December 2022
Bill Kidd
Thank you. Dr Tucker, do you have anything to add?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill
Meeting date: 13 December 2022
Bill Kidd
That is very useful—thank you. If there is broad agreement, I do not want to labour the point too much. However, should UK ministers wish to extend the sunset beyond the present date, they would need to specify individual pieces or categories of legislation to which the extension was to apply. I assume that they would not just do it carte blanche. Would that mean that there might be different sunset dates for different legislation? That would be very complicated, I imagine.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill
Meeting date: 13 December 2022
Bill Kidd
I will take the point slightly further on. The power to update in clause 16 is described by the Hansard Society as “very open-ended”. On the issue of
“whether a change in technology or a development in scientific understanding has occurred—for example with respect to Artificial Intelligence, Genetically Modified Organisms, or Net Zero”,
the Hansard Society questioned whether it should be within the scope of that ministerial power to update REUL in those areas and assimilated law
“to take account of changes in technology or in developments in scientific understanding”,
in which areas, these days, we see large movements. Is it reasonable for ministers to be left with such ministerial discretion in those instances?
Public Audit Committee
“Tackling child poverty”
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Bill Kidd
Thanks for that, because that gives us a proper background to the whole issue and not just support. Sometimes, we can say that we support something but that is more about putting a signature on a line and that is the end of it.
How much impact might the introduction of the Scottish child payment have had on what you have just described?
Public Audit Committee
“Tackling child poverty”
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Bill Kidd
I am the member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Anniesland.
Public Audit Committee
“Tackling child poverty”
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Bill Kidd
I have a specific, more technical question for Bruce Adamson. What is the commissioner’s opinion on and response to the extent to which the Scottish Government’s plan to tackle child poverty supports a rights-based approach in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child? How does the Scottish Government’s plan resonate with the convention?
09:15Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Bill Kidd
That makes sense, but people have different ideas about what is user friendly. We have heard evidence that the cost of accessing the register should be set at a level that encourages and enables use by all potential users. Will charges differ for different types of user? People with different income levels or resources might have better options for access if the costs do not vary widely.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Bill Kidd
The way that the registers that would be set up by the bill would operate will not be entirely clear until detailed regulations are made. Is the minister able to give the committee early sight of those regulations, either now or at some point before the stage 1 debate, which is anticipated to take place in the next six or seven weeks?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Bill Kidd
So we are waiting to hear about that as well. As I said, the stage 1 debate is anticipated to be within the next six or seven weeks, so I was trying to get an idea about whether there was any movement but you are still holding on for that at the moment.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 1 November 2022
Bill Kidd
On the risk that the register could contain inaccurate or out-of-date information about individuals, is there a commitment to introduce a more user-friendly corrections and dispute resolution process?
