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 1281 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Biodiversity Strategy
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Liam Kerr
I will throw the next question to Dr Walton, if you have wrapped up your answer on that question.
I also have a follow-up question. The conditions for success contain a bit about funding, but no real thoughts on the sources of such funding, bar a reference to agricultural subsidies. Bruce Wilson’s submission says that funding is not on the scale that is required, and Dr Walton made the same point in his opening remarks. I will come first to Dr Walton and then to Bruce Wilson. Will you give the committee an idea of the scale of funding that is required? Is the consultation realistic on that aspect? What would you expect to see in a delivery plan, as regards funding?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Biodiversity Strategy
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Liam Kerr
I am very grateful for those answers.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Biodiversity Strategy
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Liam Kerr
That was helpful—thank you. If Susan Davies wants to pick up on the point about conditions for success and monitoring, she can by all means do so, but I am moving on to a slightly different topic.
You heard me ask about funding sources. We got some pretty big numbers from the previous panel. Do you have views on whether the consultation deals with funding realistically and on the sources from which we can get funding?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Biodiversity Strategy
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Liam Kerr
That was interesting—thank you. Let me move on to Calum Duncan—finally. If you want to contribute to the conversation that we have just had, by all means do so, but my question is on a slightly different matter. The national marine plan was reviewed in spring 2021, as was required. Ministers are now required to decide whether to amend or replace the current plan, which I understand has not been amended or updated since 2015. Do you take a view on what should be done? In its submission, the Marine Conservation Society said that the biodiversity strategy should be aligned with the marine plan and other such policies.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Biodiversity Strategy
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Liam Kerr
I am very grateful for your response. Bruce Wilson, would you like to talk about funding?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Biodiversity Strategy
Meeting date: 6 September 2022
Liam Kerr
It was a long, but very useful, response. If NatureScot is watching this session, and it has data on return on investment, I am sure that the committee would be pleased to see it.
Before I hand back to the convener, Susie Saunders may want to add briefly to what Dr Walton said.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Service Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Liam Kerr
Thank you very much for that.
I will throw the same question to Joe Reade, as he made some comments earlier about vessel size and capacity. Joe, is Margaret Morrison right that decisions on service provision and capacity should be taken at local authority level with chief engineers and others who know about those things?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Service Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Liam Kerr
Like Margaret Morrison’s answer, that was a useful summary.
Finally, I will throw that question to Sam Bourne, because I thought that the submission that came in from the Arran Ferry Action Group had some fascinating points on that area. Do you want to add anything to the two answers that we have already heard about where decisions on provision, procurement and specification should be made?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Service Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Liam Kerr
I understand. Thank you all very much for your answers.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Service Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Liam Kerr
I have one question, which I will direct to Margaret Morrison and Joe Reade, but I am conscious that, based on his submission, Sam Bourne might want to come in at the end. Where do you believe decisions on ferry service provision, vessel specification and procurement are best taken? Should they be taken by national organisations such as CMAL and Transport Scotland, by local authorities or, indeed, by something else, such as a transport forum?
