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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 1225 contributions
|
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Petroineos Grangemouth
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Kevin Stewart
I think that we could go on for quite some time about the competitive international market. From an energy security point of view, there have to be changes to that market. To reduce our overall carbon footprint, there have to be changes to that market, as well.
What I am driving at is that we should, from an energy security point of view, be utilising the North Sea basin to the max to save on importing crude and product. Would not it be better to utilise the pipeline from Forties to Kinneil more? Would it be beneficial for Petroineos if the UK Government, in particular, looked at what could be done to help with energy security by investing in it? I am well aware of the 2013 rescue plan, which led to a £9 million grant from the Scottish Government and £125 million of loan security from the UK Government. Is it time to look at security, and loan security, in relation to future energy security and reducing the carbon footprint?
10:15Economy and Fair Work Committee
Petroineos Grangemouth
Meeting date: 13 December 2023
Kevin Stewart
The previous panel, particularly Mr Pritchard, was keen to stress that the announcement will have no impact on the plans for the Scottish cluster and the Acorn project. Is that your understanding? How will the Scottish Government continue to scrutinise the matter to ensure that that is the case?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Kevin Stewart
On the specific point about sustainable aviation fuel, the previous witnesses said that things might happen in one year, two years or three years, but that they would not give a date at this time. That was very vague. I hope that the strategic commercial assets division is managing to get a little more out of people than that.
The witnesses also said that people are masterplanning, and that the master plan might deliver this but maybe not that. My experience of masterplanning is that a course for delivery is set and, if something does not happen, that is a wee bit of a failure, to say the least.
I would like your thoughts on the level of scrutiny that is taking place, and on the Government and the divisions that deal with Prestwick airport banishing that vagueness.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Kevin Stewart
Extraordinary rendition is illegal under international law.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Kevin Stewart
In my previous role, I met the Civil Aviation Authority to discuss some of those issues. Can you tell us about your discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority about the licensing aspect and ensuring safety, if and when you become a spaceport?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Kevin Stewart
You have not talked about what the barriers are. What are they and how can they be overcome?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Kevin Stewart
There have been some controversies over the years around some of the flights coming into and leaving not only Prestwick but Aberdeen, in my patch. It has been suggested that those flights have been used for extraordinary rendition. How does Prestwick airport ensure that there is no breaking of international law and that the airport is not profiting from such?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Kevin Stewart
Are you saying categorically that no extraordinary rendition flights have entered into Prestwick, unless, of course, they have been cleared by the UK Government?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Kevin Stewart
We have just heard a little about the strategic commercial assets division, the existence of which I think we all welcome. Rightly, the cabinet secretary has pointed out that this is about looking at strategy rather than at day-to-day operations. However, some of the answers to our questions in our earlier session about strategy, not just day-to-day operations, were a little vague, shall we say.
I asked about the reliance on income from military operations and, given that such things can change rapidly, the strategy for ensuring that that revenue stream continues. The response was pretty vague. I asked about the ambitions to create a spaceport in the area. The response was pretty vague. A question was asked about the opportunity in moving to sustainable aviation fuel. The response was pretty vague.
What is the level of scrutiny from the strategic commercial assets division when it comes to teasing out the prospects for some of those things? I am not asking about the day-to-day operations but about strategic planning.
11:15Economy and Fair Work Committee
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Meeting date: 6 December 2023
Kevin Stewart
I have one final question. Everyone wants to see the sale go ahead and we want to get rid of every possible controversy in order to ensure that that happens. I asked a question earlier about the allegations that Prestwick has hosted extraordinary rendition flights, which is a breach of international law and is extremely controversial.
The folks from Prestwick took pains to say that the UK Government decides who is allowed to land and that doors often remain locked after planes have landed. I know that the Scottish Government has previously asked the UK Government for assurances that such flights are not happening in Scotland. Cabinet secretary, could the Scottish Government do that again? It might be a little bit more difficult to get the sale through while there are allegations that those controversial flights are landing at Prestwick, because some folk would not touch that sort of controversy with a barge pole.
