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 804 contributions
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Finance and Public Administration Committee
Financial Memorandum for the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill (Post-legislative Scrutiny)
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Daniel Johnson
I will follow on from the point that the convener just hinted at with regard to how the methodology was arrived at, its impact and, latterly, its impact on the sector more generally.
The 1,140 hours entitlement has been implemented on the basis of 2014 legislation. There was survey work in 2016, which was part of a technical assessment, and we then had methodology in 2020. Given that the expansion to 1,140 hours will cost around 拢1 billion a year, what are the Government鈥檚 reflections about how we arrived at that, bit by bit, over a four-year period instead of having it all clearly set out in a financial memorandum? Would it not have been better to have done the 2016 exercise, which gives a relatively clear cost stack鈥攖here is a neat pie chart in there鈥攁t the beginning, so that we would have had clearer sight of the cost implications?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Financial Memorandum for the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill (Post-legislative Scrutiny)
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Daniel Johnson
Is that a yes?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Financial Memorandum for the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill (Post-legislative Scrutiny)
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Daniel Johnson
I will come on to the 2020 framework and the four methodologies. You have neatly prefigured what I was going to say next.
First, I would like you to clarify one point. It sounds very much as though you are saying that, in the sequence of events, that granular view was arrived at only after the decision to move to 1,140 hours. Would that be a fair reflection?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Financial Memorandum for the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill (Post-legislative Scrutiny)
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Daniel Johnson
The fact that we still see 拢5.31 being used by so many local authorities seems to indicate that perhaps there has not been as much updating or reflection of local circumstances as we might have expected.
Alison Cumming indicated agreement.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Financial Memorandum for the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill (Post-legislative Scrutiny)
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Daniel Johnson
Last week, we heard from representatives of the private, voluntary and independent sector, who feel that there is a lack of transparency in how local authorities are arriving at their rates. Looking at the methodology that is set out in the 2020 paper, I am left wondering why that is. I would like clarification on two points.
First, with regard to the four methodologies, my reading of the paper is not that any local authority should necessarily be using one methodology or another exclusively; it appears that a combination of methodologies would be the best way forward. However, that does not seem to be what is happening. Is that a fair assessment of how the framework was intended to be used?
Secondly, how is it being used? The paper that summarises the approaches that are being taken by local authorities shows that a number of local authorities are taking a survey-based approach, but they seem to have done so as a one-off, whereas the guidance says that surveys should be repeated regularly. It says that a survey of costs should be done multiple times a year. I am thinking of local authorities that have done a survey once a year or two years ago.
What work is the Scottish Government undertaking to ensure that those methodologies are being pursued as they ought to be?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Financial Memorandum for the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill (Post-legislative Scrutiny)
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Daniel Johnson
Indeed. I heard that loud and clear.
Finally鈥攁nd again expanding on what the convener was asking about childminders鈥攊f we look at the overall number of providers that we have, based on what the Care Inspectorate has said, we see that there has been an increase in the number of places but a net decrease in the number of providers. That is not just the number of childminders; that is across all providers. Given the fact that the bulk of the expansion has occurred within local authorities, that means that there has been a reduction well in excess of 5 per cent in the number of all types of non-local authority providers.
When the Scottish Government reflected on the impacts of the policy, that is not what was anticipated. What lessons should be drawn about the impact that the policy has had on implementation, both in the diversity of providers and in the flexibility of provision, given that most local authority settings do not provide childcare beyond school hours?
Meeting of the Commission
Audit Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 March 2022 and Auditor鈥檚 Report on the Accounts
Meeting date: 22 June 2022
Daniel Johnson
Terrific!
I want to follow on from some of the comments that have already been made, and primarily the point that Richard Leonard made about delays. Your annual report states that around 36 per cent of your audits are not meeting expected standards. I understand that you target 80 per cent. Will you provide an explanation as to why the figure is 36 per cent and say how and when you expect to meet the 80 per cent standard?
Meeting of the Commission
Audit Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 March 2022 and Auditor鈥檚 Report on the Accounts
Meeting date: 22 June 2022
Daniel Johnson
[Inaudible.]
Meeting of the Commission
Audit Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 March 2022 and Auditor鈥檚 Report on the Accounts
Meeting date: 22 June 2022
Daniel Johnson
I think so, unless any of the other panel members has anything to say, particularly about the activity of the audit committee that oversees these things or any discussions that have been had.
Meeting of the Commission
Audit Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 March 2022 and Auditor鈥檚 Report on the Accounts
Meeting date: 22 June 2022
Daniel Johnson
Could I just push you a little on that? I note those activities and that you say that you expect improvements. Therefore, do you have an anticipated number that you expect to hit and that you can tell us about when we are sitting here at this time next year? Likewise, when do you expect to hit the 80 per cent standard? Will that be at this time next year or will it be in following years?
