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 903 contributions
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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Minimum Core Obligations
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Fulton MacGregor
I thank the panel for those helpful answers.
You have referred a few times to the red lines of minimum core obligations. Can you—[Inaudible.]—duty bearers if those red lines are indeed crossed? Again, that is in the context of incorporation if the bill is passed.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Minimum Core Obligations
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Fulton MacGregor
Good morning, panel. Thank you very much for your evidence so far. You have covered quite a lot of the area that I was going to ask about, as often happens to the last questioner. I am thinking about the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots law that we hope will happen very soon. What would be the result if it were not possible to agree a comprehensive list of minimum core obligations?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Minimum Core Obligations
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Fulton MacGregor
Does anyone else from the panel want to come in?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Fulton MacGregor
Yes.
Criminal Justice Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Fulton MacGregor
Thank you, convener. There is a bit of an echo here, but I hope that you can all hear me okay.
Katy Clark may have stolen my thunder a wee bit. I saw the reply in quite a positive light, from a committee point of view. When we were taking evidence towards the start of the process, we were—as Katy Clark said—looking at really bad cuts, and the picture looked bleak. However, as the cabinet secretary has outlined, he has, as things currently stand, been able to invest in the justice system. To be honest, I think that the committee can take some credit for that. I just wanted to strike a positive note, because we could have been having a very different conversation today. The conversation now is around the edges of things rather than about the overall picture that we were first looking at.
In addition, we have to remember that we are at a very early stage in the budget process, so there might even be scope for further good news, if we want to put it like that.
I read the letter quite positively—I thought that we might have been in a worse position by this point. I therefore echo Katy Clark’s comments. I had already pressed my button to speak as she was speaking, otherwise I would not have said anything. I wanted to put that on record anyway.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Inquiry into Race Inequality in Scotland
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Fulton MacGregor
I will focus on a slightly different area. Incorporation of the treaties is a massive area, and I am aware that the convener has already mentioned time constraints.
Farah Farzana, how important is it that BME women’s voices are heard as we take forward the proposed human rights bill and try to make some changes? As you articulated earlier, there is a real need for change in that regard.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Inquiry into Race Inequality in Scotland
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Fulton MacGregor
Good morning—it is good to see you all again.
Danny Boyle’s answer leads me on nicely to my question. I would like to hear your broad thoughts on the proposed incorporation of the four international human rights treaties, on which the Scottish Government is going to consult. That would include incorporation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Perhaps you can pick up on some of the points that you raised earlier. For example, if the proposed human rights bill is to progress, which seems likely, how could that benefit racial equality in Scotland? Is it an opportunity to provide greater investment in that area?
Perhaps Danny Boyle can start, as he raised that point in his last answer.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Inquiry into Race Inequality in Scotland
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Fulton MacGregor
Thank you for that.
Jatin Haria, you and I have spoken a lot about bits and pieces of work that are being done and whether those are becoming—for want of a better term—a bit of a talking shop. Do you have any thoughts on how the proposed incorporation bill could help us to move away from that? I think that committee members are all conscious of that aspect, as are cross-party groups. Do you have any thoughts and hopes as to whether incorporation of those laws can help to navigate this particular area?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Inquiry into Race Inequality in Scotland
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Fulton MacGregor
I hope that I am not going to take up time, but I want to raise a point while we are on the subject. I am sitting with an email that came into my inbox at 10:41 this morning. It is from a minister who was writing on behalf of someone else who has also contacted my office. I will not mention the person’s name, but they are talking about immigration status and such, and I want to highlight one quote from the email, which says:
“his eviction was dealt with in an inhumane manner.”
It is incumbent on us, as parliamentarians, to represent constituents, and we all do that, but the fact that we are talking about this issue and I am sitting with an email that I got at 10:41 this morning means that it was worth raising that point. That is all I wanted to do.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Inquiry into Race Inequality in Scotland
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Fulton MacGregor
I suppose that it is almost the other side of Pam Gosal’s line of questioning.
The Criminal Justice Committee was out at Glasgow sheriff court recently and we saw, I think, 13 hearings that day. Our visit was about the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill, but what struck me and other members of that committee was the disproportionate number of BME individuals—young BME males—who were up. We have often heard about that disproportion and something appears—I am being careful with my words—to be wrong at a societal level for it to exist.
I have to say for clarity that we saw only one session of 13 hearings that day. We will find out more about whether it is reflective of the overall situation as we take evidence at the committee.
