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 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and committees will automatically update to show only the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 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 2049 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 14 September 2023
Bob Doris
You have heard those suggestions already.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 14 September 2023
Bob Doris
I am not sure which cabinet secretary this question is best directed to, because it probably crosses over portfolios. I am aware that the UK Government provides for childcare costs as part of universal credit, although that is a capped provision. I am interested in knowing the relationship between that provision and the parental transition fund, which is envisaged to be £15 million.
Just yesterday, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice replied to an inspired parliamentary question on the fund, saying that the interaction of limited devolved powers with the UK tax and benefits system means that the fund will still be delivered in some way, but not as originally envisaged. The committee would welcome more detail on what that means in practice and on what happens to that £15 million.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Justice Priorities
Meeting date: 14 September 2023
Bob Doris
Thank you. I suspect that, in my eagerness to lobby my own Government in a public committee session, I lost focus on what my question should have been, so—with apologies to the convener—I will go back to it now.
How do we monitor, on an on-going basis, the impact of the cost of living crisis on families who are struggling? What process would the Government carry out around that? As a committee, we would be keen to know what more you would prioritise doing.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Bob Doris
Okay. I am going to ask transport questions in a second—do not worry, Mr Finch.
Mr White, will you be slightly more bold than Mr Finch?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Bob Doris
I felt the need to ask that question.
Let us look at the some of the specifics of affordability, on which the UK Government is doing some decent work. I make it clear to my unionist colleagues that I am not trying to make a party political point. Jobcentre Plus provides a travel discount card for people who are seeking employment, which, in some cases, can be used in the first month once they get into employment. There is a partnership deal with ScotRail, whereby parents can travel by rail for free once they get into employment. There is also the flexible support fund. There is a mix of stuff. The Scottish Government has the parental employability support fund, which can make a contribution towards transport costs, and Fair Start Scotland has a role to play there, too. There is also a £74 million community bus fund.
Why have I listed all those resources? I have done so because I want to make sure that the witnesses believe that the money that is in the system is being used strategically. I am talking about the money that the UK Government and the Scottish Government are providing to support out-of-work parents to get into employment and to make that sustainable, and to support those parents who are in part-time employment to pick up more hours, get into full-time employment and have the opportunity for career progression. There might not be enough money being put into that, but there is still quite a lot of money whirling around the system. Is it being used strategically and effectively? Do you have a view on that, Mr Finch?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Bob Doris
That is a very valid answer, but it is not an answer to the question that I asked. Earlier, you spoke about affordability and cost. My question was about the money that we are putting into the system to support affordability. You started to talk about the issue of the rural transport offer and whether it is fit for purpose for working families and parents who are trying to find work, which I am sure will come up later in the session. I am asking whether the money that is already in the system for affordability, whether that is provided by the Department for Work and Pensions or the Scottish Government, is being used well enough, strategically speaking.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Bob Doris
I am not suggesting a criticism.
I will bring Mr Hogg in, because I am interested in the partnership between the DWP and ScotRail. I think that the idea of one month’s free rail travel is welcome, but I do not think that it goes far enough; it could be extended to providing bus travel for parents who are moving into employment and whose children are in poverty. That is what this inquiry is about. Perhaps there could be six months’ free travel, or perhaps three months could be fully free and the next three months could be tapered to 50 per cent support. There could be a more substantive offer, or there could be a partnership between ScotRail, the bus companies and the UK and Scottish Governments. I am trying to think about how we can deliver something that is substantive and meaningful and that actually drives change for the people that I represent, rather than just talking about things.
Mr Hogg, do you have any views on that?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Bob Doris
Thank you very much.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Bob Doris
That was a really interesting question from Mr Balfour. I am a Glasgow MSP, Mr White, and on the Cathcart circle or the Maryhill line, in the north of the city, there is competition between the suburban rail network and buses. I am not clear whether regional transport authorities, bus companies and ScotRail complement each other or whether they try to be strategic in how they work in partnership in relation to that. Is that issue systemic, or are there examples of where the rail network and bus companies work properly in strategic partnerships?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Child Poverty and Parental Employment Inquiry
Meeting date: 7 September 2023
Bob Doris
I want to put on record my thanks to Paul Finch for bringing us back to the focus of the inquiry, which is child poverty and parental employment. I absolutely get that all three witnesses have been talking about affordability, the quality of the service and the safety of female travellers—a whole variety of things—but the focus of the inquiry is child poverty and parental employment. There are lots of factors in relation to transport in that inquiry.
I again need to put on the record the fact that we could do more on that if, rather than a national minimum wage, we had a real living wage, which would make fares more affordable. I must also say that 69 per cent of children living in poverty are in working households where at least one person is working and that 80,000 children in Scotland are impacted by the United Kingdom Government’s two-child benefit cap.
Before I come to the substantive questions, may I ask the witnesses whether they believe that ending the two-child benefit cap and moving from a national minimum wage to a real living wage would represent a substantive move towards making transport more affordable for parents who are trying to get into work or get more hours in their working day?
