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 728 contributions
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Murdo Fraser
In that case, I have two follow-up questions. First, if the refinery closes, what happens to the pipeline that goes from St Fergus into Kinneil?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Murdo Fraser
So the closure of the refinery will have no impact on the gas pipeline.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Murdo Fraser
If you were speaking today to one of the 400 workers at Grangemouth who might lose their jobs over the next 18 months—it might be longer than that, but it might be 18 months—what assurances could you give them that they will be likely to find a job in the green economy in which they will be able to utilise their skill set?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Murdo Fraser
Thank you, cabinet secretary.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Murdo Fraser
Beyond the transition, where will they purchase their refined product from?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Murdo Fraser
Thank you for that clarification. However, do you accept that, even though the Grangemouth refinery is closing, there will still be demand for oil and gas in Scotland? Even with a just transition, that demand will probably exist for decades to come. In effect, we are exporting those jobs. There will still be demand, but the jobs will not be here any more.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Murdo Fraser
Will those new jobs come online quickly enough so that those who might lose their jobs at Grangemouth can benefit from them?
11:30Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Murdo Fraser
Good morning, gentlemen. I want to ask a couple of questions just to follow up Mr Beattie’s line of questioning and to ensure that I properly understand the situation.
At present, Grangemouth takes crude oil from the North Sea or elsewhere, refines it and then sells the product to markets that are predominantly in the northern part of the United Kingdom. If the refinery closes, what happens to the product that is currently coming from the North Sea? Where will it go to be refined?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Murdo Fraser
My second question, then, is: where will your current customers in the northern part of the UK—the ones who are buying your refined product—source it from?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Murdo Fraser
Okay, but will those products be refined elsewhere and not at Grangemouth?