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 1501 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26)
Meeting date: 16 September 2021
Monica Lennon
Thank you for that response. I apologise if there was a slight technical issue.
Mr Sharma, you have had the role of speaking to people around the world, which has involved a lot of travel, for which you have been criticised. We can perhaps sympathise, given that in-person meetings can be more efficient. Has all that travel and face-to-face negotiation been worth it? What have been the key achievements of that process? We all have high hopes for COP26, but what are your fears about the conference? Is there anything about it that is keeping you awake at night?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26)
Meeting date: 16 September 2021
Monica Lennon
Thank you very much.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Monica Lennon
It comes back to you, yes.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Monica Lennon
I will be very brief. How will the circular economy be embedded across key sectors such as energy, agriculture and construction?
I will combine my next question with that one. You will be aware that figures that were published last year show that waste incinerator capacity has soared by 400 per cent in the time that your party has been in government. When do you hope to complete the review of the role of incineration in waste management? Will it be your new colleague Lorna Slater who leads on that work? How will planning applications for new incinerators be treated in the meantime? Will we get a moratorium?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Monica Lennon
One of the first questions that I put to the cabinet secretary when we came into our new roles was about a public energy company. There is political consensus in the area. The Scottish National Party, the Greens and Scottish Labour are on the same page on the policy. A public energy company has the potential to be transformative and progressive. The issue was the focus of debate at the SNP conference because people are concerned about fuel poverty, as well as the environmental issues that we have discussed today. The vote of 527 to 6 at the SNP conference is a strong mandate for a public energy company.
The cabinet secretary has said that such a company might happen in the future but, given that there is such a degree of political consensus, surely it is an area where people in the Parliament could work together to build on the consultation work that was done to see whether we can make it a reality sooner rather than later.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Monica Lennon
I think that we all appreciate the fact that net zero is a huge portfolio, so it is right to take a strategic approach and for Government departments to work together on it. Do you have concerns that there are some risks and challenges in taking that approach? Many of the responsibilities have been handed out to various people, so it might be hard for someone to have an overview and that lead responsibility. Officials will have to work to ensure that there is good oversight and co-ordination.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Monica Lennon
I want clarification of whether the net zero DG would have policy responsibility for climate justice and the just transition.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Monica Lennon
Many times.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Monica Lennon
Good morning, cabinet secretary. I wish you well with this big and crucial portfolio. You mentioned in your opening remarks the importance of the just transition and climate justice, so I want to bring you back to that hoover bag of ministerial responsibilities. Where does ministerial responsibility for climate justice sit, and will the new director general for net zero have responsibility for climate justice and the just transition as well?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Committee Priorities
Meeting date: 14 September 2021
Monica Lennon
Many stakeholders look for clarity in that area. Climate justice is absolutely an issue that has a global context in relation to the global south, but it also links to the just transition in Scotland, where many low-income communities and marginalised people seek climate justice. Which minister has that responsibility? You said that your officials have some input to the international portfolio, but which minister would we see in front of us if we had questions about climate justice?
