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
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 6 June 2024
Mark Ruskell
I thank the minister for the detail of that answer. ExxonMobil and Shell run Mossmorran. Around 250 workers work there, and many more are employed through short-term maintenance contracts. Any credible just transition plan for the site must be co-designed with the workers and the unions from the get-go, to safeguard their livelihoods. What engagement process does the Government plan to follow to ensure the development of a worker-backed plan? Will the minister join me, alongside site operators, workers and unions, at the summit that I will organise on the issue later this year?
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 6 June 2024
Mark Ruskell
I live in a national park, and I see every day how it hugely benefits businesses, communities and nature. From speaking to local businesses in the stunning Tay forest area, it is clear that they are looking for certainty about the designation of Scotland’s third national park. However, the clock is ticking, particularly for the statutory process to complete by 2026.
Will Kate Forbes personally ensure that this Government leaves a lasting and tangible green legacy for our rural communities by designating at least one new national park ahead of the next Holyrood election?
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 6 June 2024
Mark Ruskell
They may be running for their trains.
Last Wednesday, I was delighted to join passengers on the first train to Leven and Cameron Bridge since 1969. The Cabinet Secretary for Transport was with us, too. It was especially wonderful to join tenacious campaigners from the Levenmouth Rail Campaign. It is clear that those new stations will change lives.
Rail services are permanent and deliver far-reaching economic benefits, and investing in rail connects communities, offering a fixed, greener, cheaper transport option for as many people as possible. As a Green MSP, I have always been a strong advocate of investment in rail, new rail stations, decarbonisation and the reform of fare structures and pricing. I have repeatedly called for the nationalisation of ScotRail and the Caledonian sleeper, and, as the cabinet secretary knows, the Green group secured significant funding for rail as part of the Bute house agreement.
I think that we all agree that radically improving public transport is good for people, the economy and the planet. Back in 2021, I met the four rail unions outside Parliament for the launch of “A Vision for Scotland’s Railways”. We agreed on much in that report, and the removal of ScotRail’s peak-time fares was one of those ideas. We have been proud to fight for and win the removal of peak-time fares on ScotRail services for a trial six-month period, which started in October 2023. Alongside the four rail unions and tens of thousands of passengers who have felt the benefit of this transformative policy, we now call on the Scottish Government to make the change permanent.
Why do simpler and cheaper rail fares matter? Transport is responsible for about a third of our greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland. Road transport alone makes up about three quarters of those emissions, with a significant proportion coming from passenger car use. The Scottish Government says that it is still on track to achieve net zero by 2045. It also has the important target of reducing the number of car kilometres by 20 per cent by 2030. Significant, transformative investment in public transport, including rail, is essential if we are to have any hope of encouraging people out of polluting private cars and reducing Scotland’s carbon emissions.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 6 June 2024
Mark Ruskell
I thank Alex Rowley for his mention of the unions. I met the four unions again on Monday. They told me that, from the perspective of workers, the scheme has been really successful. Because it simplifies the sale of tickets, it has become very easy for workers who sell tickets on our railways to explain the fact that there is a single fare throughout the day. They no longer have to have difficult conversations about why a rail fare has suddenly jumped by 50 per cent. We have had great feedback from our incredible workers on the railways through our rail unions.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 6 June 2024
Mark Ruskell
I thank members for signing the motion, and I thank those who have stayed to debate it.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 6 June 2024
Mark Ruskell
John Mason makes a good point. There was an allocation in this year’s budget, but it is, of course, a changing picture. It depends on how many people get back on to the railways and whether we can see a modal shift.
We know that modal shift takes time. That is an important point in this debate, because it is about changing habits that have formed over a lifetime—a lifetime in which Governments of all shades have prioritised investment in roads and cars over investment in public transport.
Radical interventions in public transport fares clearly make a difference. Nearly 750,000 young people in Scotland now have access to free bus travel, and more than 137 million of those journeys have been made in just over two years. The national entitlement card for bus travel goes further by offering young people 50 per cent off train fares. We are already creating a generation whose first choice is public transport.
Some green shoots of progress are already emerging from the interim evaluation of the off-peak-all-day pilot, which was published earlier this week. Although the picture is yet to fully emerge, the data shows us that 53 per cent of new rail passengers in the pilot period had previously chosen to travel by car. It shows us that a third of existing rail users made at least one additional rail journey that they would ordinarily have made by another travel mode, with two thirds of those journeys normally made by car. If we want to achieve long-term modal shift, we need to give people the security of knowing that peak-time rail fares are gone for good. Only then can commuters start to plan their work and travel options around fixed rail services that are cost competitive with running a private car.
Modal shift is an important objective for the off-peak all-day pilot, but it is not the only reason why securing cheaper and simpler fares matters. Budgets are still tight for many people across Scotland. Although inflation might have levelled out, the cost of living crisis has a long tail, with prices remaining high in many sectors. I hope that John Mason acknowledges that, although the pilot has been important in driving modal shift, it has also been important as a cost of living measure. High rail fares, particularly at peak times, coupled with a complicated pricing structure threaten to make rail an unattractive option in the future. We cannot stand still on this. Rail must continue to grow its passenger demographic, not shrink it.
For those who commute to work at peak times, the cost pressure is even more stark, as I will outline. Before the pilot, someone travelling at peak times between Edinburgh and Glasgow paid £28.90, and someone travelling between Glasgow and Stirling paid £16.10. With the removal of peak-time fares, those prices have been slashed—by half in the case of the Edinburgh to Glasgow route.
Cheaper rail fares will make train travel more attractive to commuters and leisure travellers, and there are early indications from the pilot evaluation that that is having an effect. During the pilot, 78 per cent of new rail passengers chose to get the train because of the pilot. Put simply, they got on board ScotRail because the tickets were cheaper—it is that simple. It cannot be right that it is cheaper, easier and simpler to choose private cars over public transport, so reforming antiquated and unfair structures such as peak-time fares is an important part of the picture.
However, we also need to think bigger. Creating incentives to reduce fares is just one side of the price equation. We cannot secure sustainable funding for transformative green transport solutions through driving up rail passenger numbers alone. We need to be brave and bold, and measures such as congestion charging and workplace parking levies in the cities are needed to get a better balance between private car usage and the use of public transport. We know that the Scottish Government has done initial work on demand management, and I look forward to seeing the final 20 per cent reduction plan. However, we also need councils with strong leadership that can stand with the Scottish Government and drive through measures that will transform our cities for good. We also desperately need to see progress on integrated ticketing, which the Government has often promised but has not yet delivered, and which should go a huge way to improving the passenger experience and delivering more affordable fare packages.
ScotRail’s now being in public ownership is our chance to deliver on a people’s vision for ScotRail—one that makes rail affordable and accessible to as many people as possible and that encourages folks to get out of cars and on to our incredible rail services. Getting rid of peak-time fares is a very important step on that journey.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 6 June 2024
Mark Ruskell
I am enjoying hearing Graham Simpson’s not just acceptance but enthusiasm for green policies, but I am interested in what his views are on demand management. We can keep offering the carrots of reduced fares, flat fares and free travel, but there is a point at which we have to rebalance the cost of private car usage with public transport. Would he support demand management in, for example, the city of Edinburgh, if the council and local taxpayers wished to introduce it? That could lead to transformative investment in public transport in that city, as it could in many other cities, while at the same time rebalancing the cost, which, as he knows, is vastly skewed towards private car usage and away from public transport at the moment.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 6 June 2024
Mark Ruskell
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further details of the process that it will follow to develop a just transition plan for the Mossmorran industrial site. (S6O-03540)
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 6 June 2024
Mark Ruskell
To ask the Deputy First Minister by what date the Scottish Government will decide which of the national park nominations will be taken forward to the next stage. (S6F-03205)
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2024
Mark Ruskell
Mr Munro, you spoke earlier about the toxic environment that has been created around discussion of this individual project. Mr Wilson, you mentioned in your opening comments the impact on the creatives, artists, participants and others, including the negative impact on social media and in the wider media. Will you explain what that impact has been?