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 1466 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 7 September 2021
Fiona Hyslop
Could Professor Skea come in on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 7 September 2021
Fiona Hyslop
I thank you for your work on the commission and for your report, “A National Mission for a fairer, greener Scotland”. This committee’s wanting to hear from you in our second meeting is evidence of the importance that we place on a just transition.
I want to focus on industrial transitions. We know that the 2045 target will be tough and that the 2030 target is even tougher. You have talked about tensions. If we are to deliver on the targets, it might be imperative that we focus on one sector as opposed to another. How do you see the sectoral approach, given that you called for just transition plans in each sector? How do we raise the game for all sectors while trying to meet the targets?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 7 September 2021
Fiona Hyslop
We could perhaps explore that a bit more if you want to follow up.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 7 September 2021
Fiona Hyslop
I have a question for Dave Moxham, and Professor Skea may then want to come in. I know that other colleagues will want to come on to specific sectors, but I am interested in the “how” of delivery, given that skills and reskilling are central.
Over the past year, we have gone through an experience whereby we have probably had unprecedented work between unions and employers in dealing with the pandemic. That approach, of bringing employers and unions together to tackle this and to come up with skills transition, strikes me as something that could be very positive.
On the idea of mapping the different skills needed in different sectors, a lot of skills and retraining is very individualised now—a lot of private providers do it on that basis, and there is a lot of responsibility on individual workers in different sectors to do it themselves. How do we do that collectively? Dare I say it that historical vested interests are, understandably, involved in some aspects of the protection of the high standards that are necessary in different sectors for working in what are, quite often, very challenging circumstances. What is your advice on how we can make sure that, as part of those individual sectoral transitions, skills and retraining are developed in a way that is meaningful, bearing in mind that it looks as if money, resource and commitment are there? It is about the “how” and the delivery.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 7 September 2021
Fiona Hyslop
This question may be only for Jim Skea, on this occasion. It is about the idea of offshoring, how we translate that on a global basis and how the world looks at what fairness is in a global context. That is the big picture for COP26.
Your report mentions the idea of a potential global carbon tax for offshoring. Has the commission done much work on that? What are your personal views on how we can broaden the issue of just transition to be not only a national issue, and the international dimension of it?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Economic Recovery
Meeting date: 1 September 2021
Fiona Hyslop
Is it okay if we go through the other witnesses, convener?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Economic Recovery
Meeting date: 1 September 2021
Fiona Hyslop
I am conscious that this is a massive area, convener, so I suspect that people might be required to follow up in writing after the committee meeting.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Economic Recovery
Meeting date: 1 September 2021
Fiona Hyslop
Does Rose Marley have any top lines on that? Dave Moxham can then address anything that he did not cover in his answer to Colin Smith.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Economic Recovery
Meeting date: 1 September 2021
Fiona Hyslop
I thank Colin for teeing me up.
Hello everybody. As the first evidence session of this committee is in the realm of scoping and scene setting, and as the committee will be interested in the transition to net zero and the wellbeing economy, your responses and focus in those areas at this stage will—by necessity—have to be top line.
I am struck that we have heard that many businesses are still in survival mode. In addition, we have a planet that has to survive, and we heard in Michelle Thomson’s question about the debt issues that many small businesses are facing. That all comes at a time when, in order to achieve net zero, there will have to be investment in heat and transport and in relation to the demands of consumers for net zero delivery of services.
What practically can be done? How do we commit ourselves to the bigger, overarching Scottish agenda of that transition and wellbeing? What would be your messages to the committee, in order for us to focus on what can make a material change? Bearing in mind the gain that businesses will have in reduced costs in the long term, business investment might lend itself to interesting models of finance to help small businesses. However, how can that be done at the same time that businesses are trying to survive, when they are carrying a lot of debt?
Dave Moxham just spoke about some of that wider agenda, so I will come to him at the end to pick up on some of the issues that he did not cover in his last answer. I will go to Charandeep Singh first on that, then to Barry McCulloch, Rose Marley and Carolyn Currie.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Economic Recovery
Meeting date: 1 September 2021
Fiona Hyslop
Carolyn Currie can start, followed by Rose Marley.
