Official Report: search what was said in Parliament
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.
Searching by different views
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
- Report: this is the whole Official Report for a particular meeting of a committee or Parliament
- Item of business: this is each individual agenda item in an Official Report. For example, Portfolio Questions would be the item of business in a Meeting of the Parliament report
- Contribution: this is each time someone has made a spoken contribution to a meeting.
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.
Search by MSP
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.
Searching by keyword
There are two types of keyword search:
- A keyword search without quotation marks will look for every instance of each word used and rank the results by frequency and proximity. It will also include variants of the keywords using “porter stemming”. This is when the search looks for the “stem” of a word regardless of its ending. So, for example, a search for [salmon farm] will return each instance of “salmon” and each instance of “farm” as well as potentially including results for “farms”, “farmed” and “farming”.
- A keyword search with quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase used. So, for example, a search for “salmon farm” in quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase.
Combining search filters
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.
More complex keyword searches
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
- a search for “salmon farm” AND “Loch Lomond” will return only results which include both exact phrases
- a search for “salmon farm” NOT “Loch Lomond” will return results for “salmon farm” but exclude results which also include “Loch Lomond”
- a search for “salmon farm” OR “Loch Lomond” will return all results for “salmon farm” and all results for “Loch Lomond” regardless of whether they appear together
Searching by date
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:
- Current session (all Official Reports since the current sessions started)
- Last 6 months
- Last 12 months
- each of the previous sessions of Parliament. (Selecting the information icon above the “Select a time period” menu will give you the exact dates for each session.)
- All sessions
- You can also choose to select a custom date range, although adding a Start or End date will mean the search automatically defaults to this option.
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.
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Displaying 1877 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
The convener will be quite terse with me if I do not stay focused on the questions. I will bring in Mr Howard.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
We have heard from some witnesses in private, because they were concerned about airing their views in public. I get that every landowner, tenant and community group is different, but we have heard some of that concern, and it is important to put that on the record.
Not everyone has had an opportunity to speak, but I will put in my final question and we can maybe mop this up. Megan MacInnes spoke about anonymity for those who complain because of the potential risk that we have heard about. Witnesses should feel free to comment on the first two questions, but perhaps Laura Hamlet has a view on anonymity.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
I am absolutely willing to be corrected, but my understanding of the bill is that a report would be made to the land and communities commissioner, and the bill says what the content of that report should be and how the matter should be reported to the commissioner. There is a set process for that in the bill. As it stands, a potential breach may be reported only by a community with a registered interest in land within the terms of the land management plan, Historic Environment Scotland, a local authority within whose area the land sits, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency or NatureScot. We can look separately at whether the set process is appropriate, but should the list of those who may report or allege a potential breach be extended to include community councils, enterprise agencies, national park authorities and the Crofting Commission?
If you want to digest that question and think about it, that is fine. You do not need to comment now, but you have an opportunity to say what your gut tells you about extending the list in that way.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
That is helpful. You have moved on to where I was going to take the line of questioning. Before we come to that, however, do any of our other witnesses have a different view on adding the four organisations? If so, it would be good to get that on the record.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
I do not have any further questions. Is there anything regarding this area that the witnesses feel that they should have put on the record but have not been able to?
I see not. Thank you, convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
Dannie Onn, you have not had the opportunity to comment during this section of questions. Do you want to put anything on the record in relation to the questions that I asked?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
Does it give the community organisation a degree of protection?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
It has come through loud and clear that there is a quite helpful tension between making sure that land management plans are thorough and making sure that they are not burdensome. We can clearly see that they have a use and, if they exist, they should of course be complied with. My question is about what we mean by complying with land management plans.
The list of those who may report a breach of a land management plan is rather narrow, and you may be aware that the Land Commission has suggested that it be extended to include community councils, enterprise agencies, national park authorities and the Crofting Commission. Would that be helpful? What is the balance of views on the panel?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
Mr Kirkwood, I apologise for cutting you off in full flow—
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
Mr Overton may just have addressed the point.
Mr Howard, it was quite challenging to hear some of the things that you said, but it was important to hear them. I wanted to double check whether good quality land management, irrespective of whether there is a statutory land management plan and community engagement, would have an on-going structure to engage with the community anyway, whether we legislated or not, to ensure that that land management plan fits in with the on-going community structures. Mr Howard, does community engagement happen anyway, irrespective of whether we legislate? That would be quite helpful to know.
