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 1610 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 25 November 2025
Monica Lennon
Clare Wharmby, to add to the original question, does the national approach that is set out in the plan align with local data sources and local approaches?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 November 2025
Monica Lennon
Now that there has been a fuller discussion, convener, I note that you have indicated that this will probably result in a vote, because there is division on this. I welcome the advice and background papers that have been provided to the committee, and what really stands out for me is that the notification outlines the reasons for lead ammunition being restricted and the fact that it impacts not only on wildlife, but on human health, too. Our papers advise that
“ingesting lead from ammunition is known to cause excess deaths in wildfowl and poison predatory species that eat contaminated prey or carcasses. It also highlights that humans can be exposed through consuming game meat that has been shot with lead ammunition.”
Those seem like quite serious matters that we should take into consideration. I have not heard anything that would persuade me not to support the proposal today, but I thought it important to put that on the record.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 25 November 2025
Monica Lennon
I am lost for words now, convener.
This has been very interesting; it is always good to have you here, Dr Dixon. I will come to you first, because I want to turn to the importance of monitoring and evaluating the climate change plan, but I also want to pick up the thread about just transition. What you have been saying to the committee is really important, and I hope that both the UK and Scottish Governments are listening.
This is a very obvious question. How important is monitoring the progress of the climate change plan, and what are your perspectives on the two-track approach to monitoring that is set out in the plan at the moment and the inclusion of just transition indicators for the first time? Obviously, I want to hear from the rest of the witnesses, but I will come first to Dr Dixon. If Neil Langhorn wants to add to that, that would be great.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 25 November 2025
Monica Lennon
Thank you. Neil, do you want to add to that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 25 November 2025
Monica Lennon
When you say that some policies are not really policies, do you have any in mind?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Monica Lennon
I suppose that funding is key. I will hand back to the convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Monica Lennon
I will build on Mark Ruskell’s questions. Will you give further examples of the more significant impacts of climate change that we expect to see in Scotland over the next 10, 20 and 50 years, particularly in the context of infrastructure and infrastructure planning?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Monica Lennon
That is really helpful, and I am thinking about some of the skills challenges around that. Are there international examples of climate adaptation targets that the committee could look at?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Monica Lennon
I wanted to ask questions about the different impacts at the different levels of temperature increases, but Mark Ruskell has covered that.
On the modelling, the evidence and the climate science, you have given a fairly favourable answer in relation to some of the work that is taking place across the UK, including in Scotland. That is reassuring on the one hand. However, on the other hand, anyone who follows the news will see examples of local authorities no longer having flood risk committees. Clearly, at a policy level, there is a push for more development to happen, particularly for house building, because we know that we need sufficient homes for everyone in the country.
How can we ensure that decisions remain robust, evidence based and are transparent, while meeting community needs and delivering the right development in the right places? If we are going to build in an area where there is a higher risk of flooding, for example, proper mitigation must be built into that.
I do not want you to provide a particular example or authority, but people talk about such issues, because they see these events happen and they worry about how they will insure their home or their business in future. On a technical level, how can we ensure that front-line decision makers have access to the best possible data?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Monica Lennon
Thank you for that comprehensive answer. We know that there is a risk of increased flooding, wildfires and droughts because of climate change, and you have described the way in which the weather is changing. Through national planning framework 4, the current and future impacts of climate change must be taken into account in local development plans, so that is a job for our planning authorities.
In your earlier response to Mark Ruskell, you described the need for a place-based approach. Which areas are least prepared? That might be certain sectors or geographical parts of Scotland. We also know that we need to review agricultural practices and infrastructure planning. Are there any comments that you want to make on that?
