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
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 30 April 2024
Mark Ruskell
I understand that there is already an element of integrated ticketing in Shetland, and Shetland is mentioned in the statutory instrument. Would it be possible to move fully towards integrated ticketing in Shetland, at least, and to support that delivery with a regional roll-out?
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 30 April 2024
Mark Ruskell
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app froze. I would have voted no.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 25 April 2024
Mark Ruskell
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to deliver a safer speed limit of 20mph by 2025 on all appropriate roads in built-up areas. (S6O-03349)
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 25 April 2024
Mark Ruskell
I thank the cabinet secretary for the constructive working that we have had on that and many other issues since she came back into Government last year.
From the Borders to the Highlands, communities have welcomed 20mph speed limits, which reduce dangerous speeds, make places feel safer and friendlier and, ultimately, as the cabinet secretary has said, save lives. I welcome the progress that every single council in Scotland is making on those 20mph plans. Is there funding for councils to deliver a co-ordinated national programme to ensure that no community is left behind and that no child in future has to live on a residential street with a dangerous speed limit?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Mark Ruskell
Thanks very much, convener. Sadly, I have the Climate Change Committee lurgy here at home.
I want to ask about the advice around the five-year carbon budgets and go back to the point that you made at the beginning of the session, Chris. What is the Climate Change Committee’s view on that? We have heard some criticism from Piers Forster about dropping the interim targets—2030 and 2040—but you have just said that moving towards a five-year carbon budget and away from the annual targets makes sense if the action is batched together into climate change plans and is backed up with strong advice from the Climate Change Committee.
Will you offer a bit of clarity as to your view on the interim targets, what happens to them and how they relate to the five-year budget?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Mark Ruskell
When will you be able to issue that advice to both the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament? When we were setting targets in the 2019 act, we were perhaps not getting such formal, solid advice. If the Scottish Parliament were to legislate again on climate targets, we would need to have that cast-iron advice coming from the UK CCC in time to deal with that legislation.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Mark Ruskell
We would expect that to come within the next climate plan. One of the criticisms that you made a number of years ago was that the previous climate plan did not have the numbers in it, so do you expect the next climate plan to have hard figures as to what each and every policy programme will deliver in the years to come?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Mark Ruskell
I appreciate that and your points about needing to learn from the 2019 act and the process around setting targets in that regard.
You offered quite a few reflections on the early climate package that was announced last week around the intent to legislate and you have spoken at length about heat and the positivity around the heat in buildings programme and how that will get us on the right trajectory—not to meet the 2030 targets but certainly to meet the 2045 targets. Do you want to comment on any other elements of that package? You have already spoken about Grangemouth, for example. There is a commitment in the package to see a just transition plan for Mossmorran that will be early and involve workers. There has also been a commitment to finally roll out air departure tax. Do you want to reflect on anything else in that package as potentially signalling a change in Government policy or a welcome acceleration?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 28 March 2024
Mark Ruskell
I want to ask about checks when things come the other way—from the EU to the UK—and whether that might change the dynamic a little bit. Scott—do you want to comment on that?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 28 March 2024
Mark Ruskell
Fiona, you mentioned that your sector is a net importer. How do you see things panning out, once the checks are brought in?