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 2643 contributions
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 1 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
Inclusive and safe community spaces are vital for LGBT+ people. The Coorie Creative social enterprise in Stirling is leading the way in that regard, particularly through its clothes alteration project for trans and non-binary folk. Will the minister join me in welcoming the work of that incredible project and congratulate Coorie Creative on its upcoming summer residency at the V&A in Dundee, where it will be working with many disadvantaged groups across the city?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Mark Ruskell
That is very good to hear.
I want to switch back to the pilot to remove peak-time fares from October. It sounds as if one outcome might be that a lot of people start to get back on to trains again, which might be great for farebox income but might also lead to overcrowding—I do not know. How prepared are you as far as introducing that pilot is concerned? I guess that it is a little bit of an unknown, given that we are in the new normal and the peak has moved.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Mark Ruskell
Some time has elapsed since that original consultation and your reflection on it. We talked earlier about the new normal, the removal of peak-time fares and travel changing—perhaps consistently changing. Is your plan still fit for purpose? Might it change again? Is there clarity about what the demand on staff might be at stations?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Mark Ruskell
The impression that I am getting this morning is that industrial relations have improved a bit over the past year. Indeed, Mick Hogg has said that you have got rid of the bullies. Has it made a difference having a union representative on Scottish Rail Holdings?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Mark Ruskell
You have mentioned the future of ticket offices, and the uncertainty over the Government’s intention in that respect. What do you see as the future for such offices? Do you see the existing service being maintained forever, or do you see change being introduced? If so, what would that change look like?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Mark Ruskell
Gary Kelly and Kevin Lindsay, has that model of union representation worked?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Mark Ruskell
Okay.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Mark Ruskell
That is good to hear.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Mark Ruskell
I will pick up on the point about cost reduction, particularly in relation to new stations, and try to make it brief. It seems that there might be an opportunity to add more new stations to the existing rail network if there was a shift to using modular stations. Sites that have been mentioned to me include Torlundy, Evanton and Newburgh, where lower-cost stations could be brought in without having to build new railway lines. What are your thoughts on that? Do we need more innovation in expanding the rail network?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2023
Mark Ruskell
Robert Sansom, what is the passenger view on ticket offices in the future?