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.
Criathragan Hide all filters
Displaying 3294 contributions
|
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
So it could be that other sectors or other parts of the transport sector might need to have steeper reductions in emissions in order to deliver the benefits that aviation—[Inaudible.]
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
I thank the First Minister for that considered answer. There is, of course, a consensus for deeper and more far-reaching action on the climate emergency. Scientists, campaigners and communities on the front line are demanding it, and the public mood is shifting. Most MSPs in the chamber—apart, of course, from the extremist and increasingly climate-denying Tories—know what must be done yet, too often, when action is proposed it gets drowned out by naysayers, defenders of business as usual and those who are content with watching the planet burn. Time is running out, so will the First Minister commit to a climate conversation later this year—[Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government will recommit to the leadership needed to tackle the climate emergency. (S6F-02266)
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
—bringing together those focused on action to speed up the journey to a greener, fairer future?
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 21 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
Barriers under existing powers mean that SSPCA inspectors who are already on the ground investigating animal abuse are prevented from seizing and securing evidence of wildlife-related crimes, and inspectors are further limited to enforcing powers only on living animals, with their hands tied if a wild animal is found dead. Does the minister agree that that is inexcusable, and will she close the loopholes during future stages of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill?
Meeting of the Parliament
Motion of No Confidence
Meeting date: 20 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
Sarah Boyack is shaking her head, but if she does not believe me, she should listen to Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, who recognises the power grab for exactly what it is.
It is important to reflect on the qualities that good ministers have an abundance. The ability to show determination is important, but so is the ability to listen, to understand how policy affects people and business—[Interruption]
Meeting of the Parliament
Motion of No Confidence
Meeting date: 20 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
—and to respond with humility to concerns and make improvements.
Lorna Slater was tasked by Parliament with bringing in one of the most ambitious DRS schemes in Europe. She has spent the past 18 months listening and responding, and revising the scheme, so that we now have a DRS that has been designed and shaped by business itself. It sets the model for the UK, and Lorna Slater deserves huge credit for getting it to the point of launch—[Interruption]—only for the Tories to step in.
Meeting of the Parliament
Motion of No Confidence
Meeting date: 20 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
I am proud of my minister, Lorna Slater. She has not only brought the DRS to the point of launch but has increased investment in nature, banned new waste incinerators and introduced the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill to cut littering and waste. She is also delivering Scotland’s first new national park in a generation. She is a doer—a renewables engineer with real-world experience in industry. We are lucky to have her—[Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament
Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2021
Meeting date: 20 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
The cabinet secretary is right to highlight the record investment in active travel and the free buses for more than 2 million people. In addition, with the removal of peak-time rail fares in the autumn, the dial is starting to shift towards a greener and fairer transport future. What more action does the Government need to take to reduce transport demand? What is the role of the UK Government in securing that reduction in transport demand? What is the role for the other parties in the Parliament, which are very quick to sign up to targets and very weak when it comes to taking the action that is needed to tackle the growth in transport demand?
Meeting of the Parliament
Motion of No Confidence
Meeting date: 20 June 2023
Mark Ruskell
We can contrast Lorna Slater’s actions with the disgraceful actions of Alister Jack, who, as Secretary of State for Scotland, stood up in the House of Commons and completely misrepresented our deposit return scheme. Alister Jack and his fellow ministers have acted with disdain for Scottish business and with contempt for the years of work that have been spent designing and investing in a DRS scheme for Scotland. They have not listened or compromised and they refuse even now to provide the certainty that business needs to move forward. Last night, Jack would not even vote to censure Boris Johnson for breaking almost every rule in the book. Instead he stood right with him to the shameful end. If anyone should be resigning, it is him. [Interruption.]
