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 1931 contributions
|
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
I am confident about the measures that we are bringing forward. I know that a number of views were expressed when the committee took evidence. Again, we are considering all of that but, ultimately, this is about creating more fairness in the processes and provisions that we are introducing.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
In the policy memorandum, we set out why we have taken the approach that we have taken, and whether any alternatives were considered.
It comes back to striking the right balance—not being too prescriptive and allowing for some flexibility—because we recognise that land will be very different across Scotland. However, ultimately, we want to achieve a number of high-level outcomes, such as tackling the climate and nature crises, delivering our vision for agriculture in Scotland and being a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture.
We have been listening to the evidence on that and we are keen to hear the committee’s views in its stage 1 report. As Andy Proudfoot touched on, more guidance will be issued and there will be further consultation on what will be included in the land management plans. However, we hope that the high-level overview of our ultimate ambitions strikes the right balance.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
I completely appreciate and agree with your point, but we need to make sure that the proposals that we introduce are evidenced, so that they stand up to scrutiny. I am not averse to considering that point, but we would have to give greater thought to how that might work and what the evidence base for that might be. I understand the concerns that were raised in evidence in relation to that.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
I have listened to the evidence on that. First of all, the land management plans and the local place plans have different aims, so they have different purposes. My concern is that local place plans are not universal. I think that a review is due to be undertaken this year—I am sure that Andy Proudfoot will correct me if I am wrong—in relation to how local place plans are operating. It makes sense for that to be considered through the land management process, but I would be reluctant to introduce that into the primary legislation. Given the different nature of the plans, perhaps that is more appropriately addressed in secondary legislation or guidance. However, it makes sense for there to be some consideration of that because local place plans are important in identifying the local communities’ needs.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
Absolutely.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
Different forms of guidance have already been published. For example, the Scottish Land Commission has guidance on what good community engagement looks like.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
It is not for me to sit here at this time, without undertaking wider engagement and discussion, and say specifically what people will have to do. As I said, we have principles in place that have been published by the Scottish Land Commission that people can look at to see what can be expected.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
Yes. Ultimately, we have to ensure that fines are proportionate, but we are keen to hear members’ views.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
Do you want me to search for them and read them out? I would be happy to do that or to send them to the committee.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
I cannot outline to you right now every piece of guidance from the Scottish Land Commission, but that information is publicly available, and I am happy to send you it. However, as MSPs, we all know and have seen in our areas what good and bad community engagement looks like.
We want to make sure that the process is meaningful. To me, a meaningful process is about direct engagement with people. Bad engagement is when you put a form on a website and expect people to tick a box and, essentially, that is it. We want to make sure that the process is meaningful and that people feel that their voices have been listened to. There are good and bad examples of that, but we have guidance available. All this will be subject to further consultation to make sure that we are clear on what our expectations are.
