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
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 29 March 2023
Mark Ruskell
Yes, thank you, convener.
It has been a very interesting and enlightening evidence session, and I have just a couple of quick questions. First, one situation highlighted in the report is of greyhounds living and being trained in Scotland but going to race in England, where there is more of a greyhound racing industry. In that scenario, you have recommended independent regulation. Can you explain the Scottish Government’s powers in relation to that aspect of regulation? We have not touched on that yet.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 29 March 2023
Mark Ruskell
The repowering and extension of onshore wind farms will result in a dramatic increase in capacity as we head towards the target of 20GW by 2030. Given that the cost of wind generation has fallen dramatically over the years, does the minister think that there is an opportunity for communities to renegotiate some of the historical community benefit deals that still exist? What support can the Government give to communities to help them to achieve that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Mark Ruskell
I think that what we struggle with as a committee is understanding what the real issues are that have yet to be addressed. There are issues around communication, which you raised earlier, and there are perhaps issues that have already been addressed but have not been communicated. I am really interested to know which issues you are still working on.
11:15Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Mark Ruskell
Okay. I want to focus on a couple of specific areas. What might the challenges be with the cut-over period, when scheme items and non-scheme items will be in circulation? Can you also offer some thoughts on how a grace period for small producers might work? It feels as if having items that are in the scheme and items that are outwith it would be complex.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Mark Ruskell
However, the example that I pointed to is a live one. Forty-seven groups of chemicals are going through the process of being phased out in the EU, but only three groups are going through that process in the UK system. Therefore, how does the alternative model of UK REACH ensure that we do not have that divergence going forward? That seems to be a live case of divergence that is already creeping in to the system. How will the model ensure that, as we understand more about chemicals and their health and environmental impacts, decisions can be made more quickly to get them on the path to being phased out?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Mark Ruskell
There has been a lot of focus on trying to decouple the gas price from the renewable electricity price. What are your thoughts on the review of electricity market arrangements, or REMA—the market access review? Are the proposals workable? Do the current market access arrangements have particular pros and cons? It will be helpful if you can explore that a bit.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Mark Ruskell
Okay, I will roll the questions together. A decision was made not to go for the preferred option that was put forward by the UK Government, which was a delay of three years, two years and one year for different categories. Instead, another option was taken: to go for three years for all three categories. What was the Scottish Government’s input to that decision?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Mark Ruskell
Therefore, with regard to the network operator’s business plan, how would, say, targets for onshore wind generation of 12GW and targets for solar generation impact on that? What will change on the ground, in practical terms?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Mark Ruskell
Good morning, and thank you for joining us.
The draft energy strategy discusses a range of targets for onshore wind. There is also the potential for a target or targets for solar to emerge from the energy strategy, perhaps at different scales, including embedded agricultural-scale solar. There is potential for marine energy targets as well. How do such targets influence your approach to market design and regulation? It would be useful to start with solar.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Mark Ruskell
That was a useful session today, which looked in some detail at the REACH model—both registration and compliance—and how the whole model is evolving and developing over time. It is important now, in the post-Brexit landscape, that committees are able to scrutinise how common frameworks are working and how stakeholders are interacting with the development of those regulations, so I felt that the session was useful.
I do not think it desirable or achievable for the Scottish Government to take an alternative route in relation to the matter, so I am content to accept the regulations that are before us. However, there is a need for on-going scrutiny, and I would welcome more information about the alternative registration model as it is developed over time.
The wider model, which the minister talked about, particularly in relation to the points that were made about divergence and the review of existing chemicals—that we are all using at the moment, but which might impact on our health or environment—needs watched as well. Questions exist about the pace of how that model is developing and how particular groups of chemicals are being reviewed continually, as our knowledge and understanding of their impact develops.
It would be good if those points could be reflected in a letter to the minister, as I feel that this is the start, not the end, of a conversation.