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 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.
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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Jim Fairlie
I welcome the debate on this group. The proposed step is a big one for us to take, and it is right that we should consider it carefully. I think that we have struck the right balance, and that the necessary checks and safeguards are in place to ensure that the protocol between the SSPCA and Police Scotland is right. Therefore, I think that we are in the right place on this issue.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Jim Fairlie
I am happy to discuss amendment 14, and I apologise—that was my mistake.
Amendment 16 requires NatureScot to consult persons who are likely to be interested in and affected by the courses. It is likely that NatureScot may consult relevant parties in creating and approving a training course. However, as the relevant licensing authority, it is chiefly responsible for ensuring that any approved training course covers the standards that are required by the bill and other pieces of legislation. Therefore, it has to be given discretion on what the training course will be, but absolutely in consultation with the practitioners, as I have already stated.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Jim Fairlie
Please bear with me, convener, as I sort out my papers.
Amendments 59, 60, 69 and 70 are technical amendments that have no practical impact or effect on the provisions of the bill. They simply correct the grammar of provisions that have been amended by the bill to take account of those amendments.
Amendments 59 and 60 remove erroneous conjunctions in section 4(7), and amendments 69 and 70 remove a similar error in section 7(5). I encourage all committee members to vote for the amendments.
I move amendment 59.
Amendment 59 agreed to.
Amendment 60 moved—[Jim Fairlie]—and agreed to.
Section 4, as amended, agreed to.
Section 5 agreed to.
Section 6—Killing and taking of certain birds permitted only on land with section 16AA licence
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Jim Fairlie
I will take it.
12:00Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Jim Fairlie
We will have to agree to disagree.
I turn to amendment 124. As Gillian Martin explained when she spoke to a number of similar amendments during day 1 of stage 2, the changes that amendment 124 would make are not necessary. It would add an additional burden to the Scottish Parliament, despite the fact that established procedures are already in place for changes through secondary legislation, and it could lead to unnecessary delays in adding or removing birds from the list, which could have consequences for the natural environment.
Any amendment to add a new type of bird species to part 1B of schedule 2 to the 1981 act will be subject to the affirmative procedure, so the Parliament will have the opportunity to consider the instrument in draft form, take evidence on it and vote on it. That is the correct procedure for any such amending instruments.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Jim Fairlie
I give that commitment—we can work with you ahead of stage 3.
Amendment 149 is unnecessary. As I have previously mentioned, established procedures are in place for laying affirmative Scottish statutory instruments, which include the laying of those instruments in draft. In addition, we have included consultation requirements. The special provision that is envisaged in amendment 149 would diminish the efficiency with which business-as-usual legislation might be taken forward. It could also substantially delay the making of regulations that were needed to introduce urgent further protections for peatland muirburn or similar. On that basis, I encourage the committee to vote against amendment 149.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Jim Fairlie
Let me finish the bit that I was going to say, and then I will come back to that point.
A change in the dates of the muirburn season would be subject to the use of the affirmative procedure, as well as a consultation requirement. Parliament would have an opportunity to consider the instrument in draft, to take evidence on the instrument and to vote on it. That is the correct procedure for any such amendment. That clearly established requirement is set out in the affirmative procedure.
The issue also begs a question about practitioners. They will be involved in setting up the code, and I imagine that they will be far better placed than parliamentarians are to make such decisions.
I urge the committee to vote against amendment 168.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Jim Fairlie
That is why there is a provision that offences must be relevant to the grouse moor management, which allows NatureScot the flexibility not to take action. It is not required to suspend a licence, but it has the ability to do so if it is convinced that the crime has been committed in the manner that we have spoken about.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Jim Fairlie
NatureScot has the flexibility to decide that.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Jim Fairlie
I simply cannot support amendment 143. As Colin Smyth well knows, if muirburn were not allowed on moors or heath where game is present, it would be impossible to support moorland game or the industry that is enabled by it. That might be Colin Smyth’s intention, but it is definitely not the Scottish Government’s. The bill’s purpose is to allow for the undertaking of muirburn, in properly controlled circumstances, for a range of reasons, including the creation and maintenance of habitats for red grouse or other moorland game, and also, as we have heard, the protection of other ground nesters. I therefore encourage members to vote against amendment 143.
