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.
Criathragan Hide all filters
Displaying 6394 contributions
|
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2024
Edward Mountain
Our next item of business is consideration of a draft statutory instrument. I am pleased to welcome Fiona Hyslop, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport. Cabinet secretary, this is the first time that you have appeared in front of the committee in your new role—congratulations on your appointment.
The cabinet secretary is joined by George Beale-Pratt, smart policy manager, Transport Scotland; and Natalie Milligan, solicitor, Scottish Government. Thank you for joining us.
The instrument is laid under the affirmative procedure, which means that it cannot come into force unless the Parliament approves it. Following the evidence session, the committee will be invited at the next agenda item to consider a motion for the committee to recommend that the instrument be approved. As always, I remind everyone that the officials can speak under this item but not in the debate that follows.
Cabinet secretary, I think that you would like to make a brief opening statement, so the floor is yours.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2024
Edward Mountain
Can they be reappointed after four years?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2024
Edward Mountain
I have one further question, if no one has any others. Oh, I see that Monica Lennon wants to ask a question. I will go to her first and then come back to mine.
I think that Monica is waiting to go live.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2024
Edward Mountain
Now, I will really look round the room to make sure that no one else wants to speak before I make another attempt to get my question in. Right—there is no one else, so I am going.
Kevin Stewart wrote to the committee on 15 May last year to confirm the pay rates for the people on the board. I think that they were £194 per day for board members and £238 a day for the chairperson. Are those the current rates? Have they been reviewed? You might not know the answer, cabinet secretary, and I am happy to take a letter if—oh, I see that George knows the answer.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2024
Edward Mountain
The committee will report on the outcome of the instrument in due course. Are members happy to delegate authority to me as convener to finalise that report for publication?
Members indicated agreement.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Governance Stocktake
Meeting date: 12 March 2024
Edward Mountain
I take the point that is being made, and I think that I understand it.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 March 2024
Edward Mountain
Our next agenda item is consideration of two negative Scottish statutory instruments: the Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024 and the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Act 2000 (Codes of Conduct for Members of certain Scottish Public Authorities) Amendment Order 2024—I swear that the titles get longer every time.
The instruments have been laid under the negative procedure, which means that their provisions will come into force unless the Parliament agrees to a motion to annul them. No motions to annul have been lodged.
Let us consider the Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024. As the paper by the clerks explains, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has drawn the regulations to our attention on the general reporting ground on the basis that the explanatory note was too brief. The Scottish Government responded to that feedback by providing a revised explanatory note for the instrument, which the clerks have included in the papers for this item.
Do members have any comments on the regulations? It would be worth while putting on the record that the quality of the explanatory notes and policy notes from the Scottish Government varies considerably. Some of them are extremely good but, on occasion, the committee has felt that it was not provided with all the information that it required. Perhaps we should make that comment to the Scottish Government but not make any recommendations in relation to the regulations.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
Good morning, and welcome to the eighth meeting of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee in 2024. We have apologies from Monica Lennon and Sarah Boyack MSP is attending in her place as a Scottish Labour substitute member of the committee. Graham Simpson MSP is also here, primarily to ask questions about ferries. Welcome to you both.
The first item on the agenda is a decision on whether to take in private item 6, which is consideration of the evidence that we will hear under item 4, on ferries. Do we agree to take item 6 in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
Our next item of business is consideration of a draft Scottish statutory instrument. I am pleased to welcome Gillian Martin, the Minister for Energy, Just Transition and Fair Work. She is joined by Karen Dickson, the Scottish Government official who is responsible for energy and markets policy, and Aedan MacRae, energy markets policy officer. Thank you for joining us today.
The instrument is laid under the affirmative procedure, which means that it cannot ?come ?into force unless the Parliament approves it. Following the evidence session, the committee will be invited, under the next agenda item, to consider a motion that the committee recommend to the Parliament that the instrument be approved. I remind everyone that the officials can speak under this agenda item but not in the debate that follows.
Minister, I think that you want to make a brief opening statement.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
Thank you, minister. There are a few questions. Deputy convener Ben Macpherson will ask the first one.
