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 2616 contributions
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
Yes. That would be very useful, I am sure.
My final question is about local recycling targets. Are they necessary, and should we be looking beyond recycling to other targets that reflect the waste hierarchy, such as reuse targets at local level? Is that something that local authorities would welcome?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
I do, but I can come back in later on.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
I want to ask about the wider point around charging for household waste collection—not just for special uplifts but for standard collections. There have been responses to the bill that have suggested that that works in Europe and that there are ways to do it in a way that is fair, such as through a save-as-you-recycle scheme. I want to get your opinions on that, because it is not currently a provision in the bill. Perhaps David McCulloch and then Brydon Gray will reflect on that.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
Thanks. I want to ask about the funding and investment environment. How do we build in certainty for investment in the infrastructure that is going to be needed?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
Could EPR be a game changer in terms of the investment that is needed? What is the most important signal on finance to send to industry and local authorities right now? [Interruption.]
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
Gail Macgregor, did you want to come in on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
Are there any other views on that?
11:00Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
I will follow up on a couple of those points. I want to get your reflections on soft plastics. Plastic films are very difficult to recycle. I noticed that a plant had been set up in Fife to mechanically recover some of that material. If we are to significantly increase recycling, do we need to address the issue of soft plastics? Do we need to have a national facility or regional facilities?
The other issue that I want to ask about—I would like to get a Shetland perspective on this—is fishing gear. What is, in effect, ghost fishing gear has a big environmental impact. It lands on our beaches, and I am sure it lands on your beaches, too. Do you see the bill as having a role in dealing with that, or do you think that it should be part of the work of local authorities to deal with that, whether through a deposit scheme or enhanced regulation or standards in that area?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
Yes. If we could go to David McCulloch, that would be great.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 November 2023
Mark Ruskell
I want to ask you about your experience of the most problematic waste streams. We have heard some evidence about furniture that has POPs in it. I am sure that there are lots of other waste streams where there are particular challenges with volume or handling of materials. Could you outline what those are? How do you see the bill addressing some of those issues? I am thinking of single-use charging or even the banning of certain products. Let us start with Glasgow City Council.