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.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
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.
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.
There are two types of keyword search:
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.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
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:
If you search by an individual session, the list of MSPs and committees will automatically update to show only the MSPs and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of MSPs and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of MSPs 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.
Displaying 772 contributions
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 2 December 2021
Jenni Minto
I have a question that follows on from those that Ms Boyack asked.
Dr Melo Araujo, in your submission, you talked about qualifying goods and the changes in the rules on those that were meant to be brought in in October 2021, but which have been delayed. Could you expand on that? Mr Leheny, you are also welcome to comment.
09:30Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 2 December 2021
Jenni Minto
Thank you, Professor McEwen. I have a specific question on your joint submission at section 3.2:
“Policy divergence can, however, produce effects that may be regarded as adverse. Divergence in public services generates distinctive rights and entitlements within the same country which some may consider unfair.”
Can you expand on that? Clearly, our devolved Parliaments legislate a lot in that area.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 2 December 2021
Jenni Minto
In that case, I will throw back the final question that you asked in your submission. You asked:
“What sort of ‘United’ Kingdom is this?”
I would like to hear your thoughts on that.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 1 December 2021
Jenni Minto
Two weeks ago, we took evidence from scientists on the climate and nature emergencies. They raised a number of points in relation to gaps in data collection and suggested that land managers, farmers, crofters and fishers could provide that information. I would be interested to know what your bodies do with local wisdom and evidence that is captured by people within communities.
Moreover, following on from Graham Neville’s point about blended public and private funding, I note that two scientists, one of whom was Dr Tara Marshall, told us that, when industries are decommissioning or changing things, they capture a lot of data that could be used more widely. Do we need to ensure wider access to such data to let us move forward in tackling the climate and nature emergencies?
There are two sides to my question: the local gathering of data and the data gathered by corporations.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 1 December 2021
Jenni Minto
That is great. I wonder whether David Signorini can answer my initial questions.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 1 December 2021
Jenni Minto
It is interesting that you mention Norway. Are you learning anything from the national parks in America? I believe that you met representatives from those parks at COP26.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 1 December 2021
Jenni Minto
That is really helpful. I certainly recognise that point in my community—I know that someone feeds in information about dead dolphins and porpoises on our beaches. However, it is about knowing the person to go to, and how to capture that information.
Does Andy Wells have anything to add from the Crown Estate’s perspective?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 1 December 2021
Jenni Minto
Could Graham Neville comment on accessing data from other organisations and businesses?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 1 December 2021
Jenni Minto
Danny Renton, do you have any thoughts on what I said about not being able to keep oceans in one state because nature will take over?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 1 December 2021
Jenni Minto
I thank members of the panel for their informative evidence.
Two weeks ago, we heard evidence from a panel of academics, who suggested—this follows on from what my colleague Rachael Hamilton was asking about and, to some extent, what Danny Renton has just said—that we cannot keep oceans in one particular state, as nature will take over. They also said that we need to look at the overall protection of ocean areas instead of focusing on just one area. I wonder whether you can expand on those two ideas from your perspectives.
As an aside, I say to Dr Rennie that I believe that the St Andrews Links Trust is using old Christmas trees to stabilise the sand dunes at St Andrews. However, I would be interested in hearing his thoughts on looking at the ocean as a whole.