Site help

Homepage sitting day calendar

Search help

First Search
The first time you conduct a search, you must specify an area of the site to search. Although site-wide search is available as an option, we recommend restricting your query to a specific area. Information on this site reflects the very broad nature business before the Parliament, and unless you target your search carefully, results are likely to appear irrelevant.

Search Preferences and Settings
These values from your last search are retained on subsequent searches:*
• the area of the site you searched;
• if your last search was restricted to just one House, that House;
• if your last search was restricted to a particular type of House Paper, that type of House Paper;
• if your last search was restricted to former Members rather than current Members, that type of Member;
• whether or not word variations are to be matched;
• result list settings: number of documents per page, and the sort order.

If you do not want to retain these values from your last search, untick the "Retain preferences" checkbox. You can clear your stored preferences at any time by clicking on the "reset" link next to that checkbox.

*Preferences are stored by your browser using cookies. If your browser is not cookie-enabled or if you switch computers, preferences are not retained.

Matching Word Variations
Only the exact words you specify are matched, unless you tick the "Match word variations" checkbox. Often you may intend word variations to be included, for example you may enter only 'test' when you mean to include 'tests', 'testing', 'tested', etc. In those cases be sure to specify "Match word variations".

Query Syntax
As well as words and phrases, your query may include the following operators to search based on the absence of words, or the position of words relative to each other.

Operator	Meaning
AND	The documents retrieved must contain both the words/phrases you have typed. The terms can appear anywhere in the document (unless modified by additional operators). Eg: ethics AND animal research
OR	The document must contain at least one of the entered words or phrases. Both terms may be present.Eg: ethics OR code of conduct
NOT	The retrieved documents must contain the first term and must not contain the second. Eg: ethics NOT animal research
XOR	The documents must contain either the first search term or the second, but not both terms. Eg: ethics XOR code of conduct
EXCEPT	The retrieved documents must contain the first search term but only if the second term is not in the same paragraph as the first. Both terms can appear in the document; just not in the same paragraph.Eg: ethics EXCEPT animal research

 
Case, Punctuation, Reserved and Common Words
• Searches are not case-sensitive. Operators appear in upper case on this page purely for convenience.
• Punctuation is ignored; a search will bring up matching punctuated and unpunctuated words and phrases.
• Reserved words are all those used as search operators - eg, AND, OR, NOT, etc. To search for the existence of a reserved a word in a document, enclose it in quotes (ie "AND").
• Common words such as I, THE, IT, IS are ignored in searches.

Accessibility


See also records maintained on this site and who updates them for an explanation of how quickly new material is published to this site, how far back the Parliament's records are available online, and who to contact regarding updates and specific enquiries. For further assistance please contact us.