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 Commission
Meeting date: 22 December 2021
Mark Ruskell
That is fine. It sounds as if there are exciting opportunities for staff and as if there are potential cost reductions. That is a happy situation to be in.
I want to ask about a specific detail in the budget, which is the £660,000 for governance. Can you briefly explain what sits under that figure?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Mark Ruskell
Good morning. On the co-operation agreement between the Greens and the Government, in which areas has substantial progress been made, notwithstanding your comments about the fact that now is the time to build that delivery and ensure that we have the budgets and the detail for delivery? Are there particular themes on which progress is being made?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Mark Ruskell
I go back to some of the previous comments about carbon capture and storage. The committee heard some evidence last week that raised concern that CCS could be deployed in a way that, in effect, builds in dependence on fossil fuels. What are your thoughts on that? Do you see a case for separating out the function of something like the Acorn project as a carbon storage system for cement and other hard-to-abate sectors from the industry desire to increase the market for blue hydrogen? Is that something that you have considered? Are there risks in terms of how CCS could be used and deployed, and any unintended consequences from that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Mark Ruskell
My last question is about aviation. We are talking about complementary strategies. The Government’s current aviation strategy seems to be about increasing aviation, although there was a recent recognition that aviation development needs to drop in order for us to meet the transport carbon targets. What is your advice on the approach that any new strategy needs to adopt? Where should we focus on to reduce emissions? Of course, there are all the unicorn fuels for aircraft but, given the severity of the situation that you laid out at the beginning, I am not convinced that we are going to get there through that alone.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Mark Ruskell
Thank you. Back to you, convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Mark Ruskell
I will move on to questions about transport. The Scottish Government has a challenging trajectory on that. It is dependent on a lot of behavioural change. Are the right tools in the box at the moment? Do you have advice on how the Government should approach demand management, for example, as a tool to nail the 20 per cent reduction in vehicle mileage?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Mark Ruskell
One element of the issue is capital investment in infrastructure. We have the strategic transport projects review coming up in the new year. In the past, the CCC has perhaps been a little reluctant to offer advice to Governments about road building. Where are you on that now? Given the state of the emergency and the challenge that you have laid out in meeting the 2030 targets, how has your thinking evolved over time on capital investment in road infrastructure, induced demand and where we should draw the line on some of that?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Mark Ruskell
Finally, as a member organisation trade body, you have engaged with Europe a lot over the years. What does that engagement look like now? Are there lessons to learn from other regions across Europe? I am thinking in particular about the Nordic regions and how they align their markets effectively, given the complications. Norway is outside the EU and Sweden is in it, so there will be issues around trade in food, livestock and other products. Are there any examples from your international experience about how alignment of market regulation can work between countries that are sitting in very different constitutional arrangements, as we are, in post-Brexit UK?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Mark Ruskell
Thank you. I would love to have another hour on that topic.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Mark Ruskell
It has been a really interesting session. I was struck by what Martin Johnson said about the fit for 55 energy and climate package, and Dr Stein talked about the work on hydrogen, as well. I would like to unpack that a little bit more because it is obviously a big strategic priority and I imagine that it will dominate the work of the Copenhagen office. What do you see as the main work strands to come out of that? Do you see Scotland as being currently aligned with the EU agenda or are there differences in approach? I would like to start with Martin Johnson on that question.