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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Displaying 2089 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Jim Fairlie
I cannot answer that, unless Carole Stewart wants to chip in as to whether there has been a reduction in the network support grant usage.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Jim Fairlie
The pilot will run from January 2026 to January 2027.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Jim Fairlie
We will let you know if it is Aberdeen in due course.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Jim Fairlie
I will add to that. One of the things that I considered during my discussions with Bettina Sizeland is how we ensure that we are creating behavioural change and habit-forming behaviours. We are actively looking to see whether, when people are no longer eligible for a pass, they continue to use the bus or buy their first car. It is difficult to gauge that, but we are actively trying to understand whether we are genuinely creating the behavioural change that we are looking for. It will take us a bit of time to do that.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Jim Fairlie
I get that people do not get to use all the ferries all the time, but I would note that in 2021 an island communities impact assessment concluded that ferry travel should not be included in the scheme at that time. We have some ferry concessions for younger people, and, as I have said, I would like to do more. I fully understand, and fully take on board, the connectivity issues faced by island and peninsular communities, and if we had more money to do as you suggest, we would do it. However, we do not, but I will continue to actively look at how we can make connectivity better for the island communities.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Jim Fairlie
You are right. I am wrestling with that. It is all very well having a bus pass, but if people do not have a bus to go on, they cannot use that pass. I absolutely accept that.
It goes back to the point that I have made to a number of members. The loss of routes is incredibly frustrating. Local authorities and bus operators make those decisions. We are limited in what we can do. We can put funding into various things. The concessionary travel scheme is working, but I absolutely take the point that you made that, if there is no bus available, the scheme is not working for those people who are affected. I am actively looking at the ability to make better provision in areas where the bus services are not as good as they should be.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Jim Fairlie
I do not have data to say that, but we have seen an increase in people, in particular young people, using the bus.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Jim Fairlie
Carole Stewart may want to answer that.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Jim Fairlie
I give you an absolute assurance that there is a zero-tolerance approach to fraud. Under no circumstances will we tolerate anyone trying to defraud the scheme. Types of fraud include bus drivers falsely recording journeys made, and cardholders fraudulently allowing others to use their card or fraudulently obtaining a card, but such things are robustly pursued at all levels. I cannot give you a figure for how many times that has happened—officials might have that to hand—but it is not something that the Government will accept, or should be accepting.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Jim Fairlie
Whether we like it or not, we are living with a deregulated bus service. We can argue the rights or wrongs of that, but it is what it is.
You said that the percentage has gone down. It is going down, but the number of young people using buses is going up and there are more bus journeys, which is all positive.
There are on-going conversations about what else we can get out of this. I am meeting CPT—I think, tomorrow—and we are going to start talking about what more we can do to tackle antisocial behaviour. You will be aware that the minister Siobhian Brown—I am so sorry, but I cannot remember her title—will shortly be releasing a report on antisocial behaviour issues across the board, not only in relation to buses.
There are regular, on-going conversations. I met the bus operators last week and am due to meet local authorities and transport authorities in the coming weeks. I am keen to ensure that we have continuous conversations about how to make bus travel better for the public purse and for passengers while, at the same time, allowing companies to continue making a profit in order to be able to invest. We have invested a huge amount of money in electric vehicles in the past and there is a reasonably good working relationship with the sector, given that the industry is, at the moment, deregulated.
This committee was involved in passing the legislation to allow for franchising and other models that offer more involvement in what bus services supply. The conversation is regular and on-going. I will continue having it and will continue being answerable to the committee so that we can see whether we are going far enough and hard enough.
