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 831 contributions
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
This question is perhaps for Claire Hislop and Jo Teece. In previous meetings, we have considered whether a new body is needed to ensure—I do not want to use the word “enforce”—that what is outlined in the bill and the envisaged plan works. Do we need a new body in this area? Can we develop existing bodies that work around food in Scotland so that they can fulfil that function?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
Will you elaborate on what you mean by the world of food being a “cluttered” environment? Will you explain what you were thinking?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
Does Jo Teece have a view on that or on the more general point that I made about whether a new body is needed?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
Iain Gulland, you have given us some fearful statistics about food waste and you have set out a solution. Rightly, you are advocating for more food to be grown in Scotland that can be used in Scotland. How does that relate to the problem that we were talking about last week, which is the affordability of food? It is not just about the rising cost of living. More generally, we have been talking about how to make food affordable for people on low incomes. We all want to see more food that is grown in Scotland being used in Scotland, as a solution to some of the problems that you have outlined. How do we make that happen and make it more affordable?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 2 February 2022
Alasdair Allan
My question is for Dr Fletcher and Claire Hislop. You mentioned the important issue of the food environment in Scotland, which I think we would all agree needs to be changed. However, I am sure that you would also agree—although I do not want to put words in your mouth—that we cannot divorce that issue from the issue of incomes. Although I appreciate that some of the levers for determining incomes, whether through wages or benefits, are reserved, perhaps you can say a little about what you think a good food nation should be with regard to incomes.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
Good morning, cabinet secretary. You are certainly a regular customer at the committee, and we look forward, I hope, to UK ministers being similarly co-operative in future.
My question is about how the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 relates to other measures. You touched on this in your introductory remarks, but I am interested in the cumulative effect on policy, particularly as it relates to all three devolved Administrations. You mentioned unhappiness in that quarter, and I know that there has been coverage about unhappiness on the part of the Welsh Government about the impact on policy in areas such as education. What contact has there been with, or what have you heard from, the other devolved Administrations about what they feel is the cumulative effect of the 2020 act, plus other measures?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
The cabinet secretary has hinted at some of the UK Government’s motivations behind its actions. In a state that operates without a written constitution and on precedent and expediency, where is this all going? Are we moving into a period in which the UK Government looks at the Sewel convention—the convention that the powers of the Scottish Parliament are not altered without its consent—as constitutional history?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 27 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
As far as I understand it, the UK Government is presenting the shared prosperity fund or the levelling up fund as, in essence, new money. You mentioned the impact on individual portfolios. Can you say a bit more about the impact on Barnett consequentials? There has been a decision to expand the English shared prosperity fund across the UK. What are the implications of that for the block grant?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 26 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
This is a question for Jonnie Hall. Could you speak a bit more about what you feel a good food nation would look like? You have given an indication already about what it might mean for the agricultural sector and elsewhere, but, at a time when, as you have indicated, we are moving through a period of change in agricultural payments, how does a good food nation plan—which is what is in the bill—relate to the wider issue you are talking about in terms of the change in the regime that farmers have to operate under?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 26 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
We have talked about whether new bodies are needed to implement what might be in the bill and its plans. Does John Davidson have a view on whether that should be a priority for the money that might be spent on good food? Are there other areas in which the money might be better spent?