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 1665 contributions
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Kevin Stewart
But the market might make its decisions based on the fact that there are not many hydrogen refuelling stations at the moment. There are only three in Scotland, two of which are in Aberdeen and were out of action for a little bit. That in itself would have an impact, would it not?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Kevin Stewart
Sorry. I think that you were cut off there.
Unless anybody else wants to come in on that, I will hand back to you, convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Kevin Stewart
Actually, I wish you would because you said that your part was delivered—
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Kevin Stewart
We live in a world in which anti-climate change rhetoric is growing. Jess Pepper said earlier that she sees energy and excitement about change from people, but I do not see that, I have to say. I have been knocking on a lot of doors of late and it is not one of the top issues; it was probably higher up the agenda previously. Folk listening to this evidence session will probably be somewhat bamboozled by what has been said. Folk have asked for more detail about the plan itself because there are too many assumptions, and what about the what-ifs? Assumptions have to be built in. We have heard about flexibility and being adaptive; we have heard various things about what is missing and what should be in. However, folk do not want too many assumptions; they want more detail, so I wonder what people out there will think of that argument.
A lot of this is about delivery. Earlier, Professor Curran mentioned the flood risk management in Scotland arrangements for 2012 to 2016 and talked about how that was done, the project managers and the rest of it. When it comes to delivery, has that worked? I make a point about the flood risk at Whitesands in Dumfries—an area of Scotland that I do not know particularly well but which has featured in the Parliament quite a lot—because there has been no delivery, yet I am quite sure that it featured in your plan for flood risk management in Scotland.
Why have we had the argument around the plan today—on what is there, what is not there and what should be there—why have we not thought about the what-ifs, and why are we not talking more about delivery?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Kevin Stewart
Can I come in on Professor Curran, convener?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Kevin Stewart
I am playing devil’s advocate here, but I go back to the lack of delivery or folk not wanting a project to be delivered. You talked about the costs of inaction, but the people of Whitesands in Dumfries know that there is a flooding risk. They know the cost of inaction, yet many of them do not want that flood prevention scheme.
Lloyd Austin talked about the communications and not everything being monetary, but, for many folk at the moment, their lack of income and the struggle to pay electricity, gas and food bills is the top priority without a doubt. Money in their pooch is aa they think aboot.
I will come to Jess next.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Kevin Stewart
You say that you are supportive of the plan—even though there has been a huge picking of holes in it in your evidence today—but you know what will be reported from this session today. Mr Austin has concentrated on agriculture. He basically wants everybody to eat less beef, other meat products and dairy. That will go down like a lead balloon with many folks, including many folks who cannot afford such things at the moment. There has been talk about a reduction in cars. I have no skin in the game—I am not a driver and never have been—but again that will be the thing that is reported. There will be the talk of putting in what folk see as very expensive heating solutions. Again, I have no skin in the game because I am already all electric, but you can see exactly where this goes.
In picking holes in the plan and not talking so much about the delivery that is required, each of you today has provided the headlines for the anti-climate change brigade, which has probably reduced energy and excitement among the folk who recognise that climate is an issue.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Kevin Stewart
Andy Poole said that he was not quite convinced about some aspects of the Climate Change Committee position. I take it that the not convinced bit includes hydrogen. Other countries are looking at hydrogen for HGV use and say that it is much better than electric vehicles. Does that need more exploration in these islands, as is happening in China, Germany and the United States?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Kevin Stewart
I recognise that the bit that you were responsible for was delivered, but the practicalities of flood defences and flood risk management have not been put in place due to arguments at lower levels. We are arguing today about a climate change plan, and the Scottish Government will not be responsible for the delivery of a huge amount of it, but we want all the detail of what the Scottish Government will not be responsible for.
Quite simply, this is about delivery. The Government can put together a plan that looks immense and entirely workable and that, perhaps, everybody could eventually agree on—although that is doubtful—but none of that works if there is no delivery. That is my point. We are arguing the semantics of all this, but delivery is key. Delivery is king or queen, is it not?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Kevin Stewart
—but the reality on the ground for people who have faced flooding in various parts of the country is that it has made no difference; they are still being flooded.