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.
Displaying 2616 contributions
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Mark Ruskell
Nuclear energy is costly and dangerous, and it will leave a legacy of toxic waste and higher bills for generations to come. The Tories’ epic failure to deliver Hinkley Point to time and budget shows just how unreliable and costly new nuclear is. In contrast, in Scotland, we are getting on with the job by building out new wind and solar energy at pace. Will the cabinet secretary join me in welcoming the new pledge from 118 countries at COP28 to triple their renewable energy capacity? Does he agree that locally sourced renewable energy is the real solution to ending our reliance on climate-wrecking fossil fuels?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
I have a couple of questions. The first is about fair work. It is good to see fair work principles embedded into the strategy, but I am interested in how you extend those fair work principles to businesses that you work with and organisations that are getting grant in aid.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
Has there been any pushback on that?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
I will use Stirling castle as an example to ask about transport planning. It has a very small car park. It is tempting to drive into the centre of town and up to the castle, but there are other options. Would you be working with Stirling Council to plan the management of tourism, bearing in mind the historic nature of Stirling city centre?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
My final question is about how you are engaging with marginalised groups. You have your membership, cardholders and, I am sure, school visits and other visits to attractions, but there will be groups of people in Scotland who have not connected with the assets and who do not feel able to. There will be other groups such as new Scots, who might also struggle to engage. I am interested in how you are ensuring that the benefits of our national heritage and assets are felt by everybody in Scotland, including those who might not visit an asset for a whole range of reasons, including income.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
Last week we spoke quite a bit about climate change, which is obviously a key aspect of the strategy. You have already mentioned heat in buildings, fabric first approaches and so on. I want to pick up on another area: less on direct emissions and more on the emissions that come from visitors and heritage tourism. I am interested to know what work you are doing to address some of that, perhaps in partnership with local authorities, national park authorities or other bodies. We have heard that Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority wants to set up mobility hubs to encourage tourists to arrive in the park and take a sustainable transport option to go on to a visitor attraction. How are you embedding that partnership approach, working with councils and others to drill down on unnecessary emissions?
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
I ask the minister about the importance of local political leadership on this issue. My understanding is that Stirling Council has had money from the community bus fund to develop new local rural services and that Loch Lomond and the Trossachs national park is also committed to establishing new routes, working with the council, which will be included in the forthcoming park plan. It seems that all the ingredients are there to restore rural bus services, but what is lacking is the local political leadership to pull it all together and use the new powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
It is disappointing to hear Mr Kerr invoke the clearances. Is he honestly saying that rewilding projects that are brought forward by communities—many of which have applied successfully to the nature restoration fund—should be stopped? Is he saying that he does not support communities doing that rewilding work?
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
I appreciate the member being generous with his time, but will he also reflect on the fact that there are farmers who have applied to the nature restoration fund for species reintroduction and riparian planting because it benefits their farms and the local community? Will he acknowledge that there are farmers who support this agenda and are benefiting financially from it?
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 30 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
Today, world leaders are gathering for the 28th United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP28—and the stakes could not be higher. The UN has warned that current climate pledges are “falling short” of the action that we need, and that we are on course for a brutal 3° of global heating this century. It is deeply concerning, therefore, to hear reports that the United Arab Emirates is attempting to strike fossil-fuel deals at COP, which will worsen climate injustice for people who are already living on the brink of disaster. Does the Deputy First Minister agree that at COP28, we need to see a just and credible plan for the end of fossil fuels, not secretive backroom deals?