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 2588 contributions
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Mark Ruskell
It is clear that unsustainable and unfair working practices have been allowed to build up across the rail industry over many years. Does the minister agree that that is why having union and passenger voices on the ScotRail board will be so important in future? While passengers wait for the dispute to be resolved, can the minister ensure that no communities—communities such as Dunblane—are disproportionately impacted by the emergency timetable?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Meeting date: 24 May 2022
Mark Ruskell
I can confirm that, as the member who is now in charge of the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill, I will seek a reconsideration stage to ensure that the work of Mr Wightman, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Parliament as a whole is not lost.
The Deputy First Minister made a clear commitment to work closely with stakeholders on amendments to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill. Will he also make a commitment that he will work with me and with stakeholders—COSLA, in particular—on the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill and that we will have a meeting sooner rather than later to discuss the shape of some of the amendments that might be lodged and what the options might be?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 19 May 2022
Mark Ruskell
I want to pick up on the final topic, because I have been thinking about Professor Nicola McEwen’s comments about there being an age of former glory in relation to use of the Sewel convention, obviously in very different political times and, as Chris McCorkindale has said, perhaps at a time when it was not being stress tested quite so much.
I am interested in parliamentary scrutiny and in getting thoughts from around the table about whether there is more parliamentary scrutiny now or whether there was more in the past and less today, and about what the opportunities for parliamentary scrutiny might be in future. I see that Professor Page is nodding—you have invited yourself to make the first comment.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 19 May 2022
Mark Ruskell
That is very useful.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Meeting date: 19 May 2022
Mark Ruskell
I thank the First Minister for that crystal-clear response. Six months on from the 26th UN climate change conference of the parties—COP26—hundreds of new fossil fuel projects have been proposed globally that, if realised, will cause our mutually assured destruction from climate change.
The European Union knows that, which is why it is backing renewables through a new multibillion pound investment. In contrast, the UK Government minister Kwasi Kwarteng is fuelling the rush to climate breakdown by relabelling dirty gas as green, in an attempt to fast track developments such as Jackdaw.
Does the First Minister agree that the best way to slash energy bills is to replace gas with renewables and that the best way to isolate Putin is to insulate homes?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Meeting date: 19 May 2022
Mark Ruskell
To ask the First Minister what further talks the Scottish Government has had with the United Kingdom Government about future oil and gas fields off the coast of Scotland. (S6F-01115)
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Mark Ruskell
It has been a dream come true for communities that campaigned for the Levenmouth rail route to now see the tracks being relaid. The route also opens up opportunities for a rail freight facility, which is being worked on with Diageo, the Malcolm Group and other local businesses. I note that it took seven years for the Highland Spring rail freight facility to be designed, developed and built. What role can Transport Scotland play in accelerating the development of a rail freight facility on the Levenmouth line, especially given the climate emergency?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Mark Ruskell
You have all spoken about LHEES a fair bit, and I have a couple of follow-up questions on those. We are now passing regulations requiring councils to produce their strategies and delivery plans by the end of 2023. Is everything in place to enable that to happen? Do you have concerns?
I would also like to ask about the scope of LHEES and the inclusion of public and commercial buildings in the mix. Earlier, you said that every building should be included, but does that include historic buildings and public and commercial buildings? Can we get all the heat sources linked into those strategies? With commercial heat sources, could people say, “No thanks—we’re not interested in this”? Could people resist connection to district heating or whatever?
I ask for your final reflections on LHEES and where we might be going in that respect.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Mark Ruskell
On the possibility of a windfall tax, it now looks as though it is a matter of when rather than if. What would your priorities be for spending that money? Would they include, say, a deficit fund or funding for front-line energy efficiency advice? How should any reinvestment in this area be deployed in order to benefit people who are struggling?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Mark Ruskell
As you will be aware, Greg Hands came before the committee last week, and he gave quite wide-ranging evidence on all sorts of things, including our nuclear energy. He described the Scottish Government’s opposition to nuclear as “ideological”. How do you respond to that? Is there a role for nuclear in reducing energy bills?