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 1046 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 12 September 2023
Neil Gray
Sorry?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 12 September 2023
Neil Gray
Our target is 2045. We also have 2030 targets. All the funds that we put forward, which Mr Lumsden has listed, are intended to ensure that we take steps in different parts of the economy to reach those ultimate targets. Some of that is about trying to inspire good behaviour; some of it is to support people in taking difficult but necessary decisions around changing the way that they do their operations. All of it is geared up to ensure that we reach the 2045 target.
Public Audit Committee
Written Authority: Completion of Vessel 802
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Neil Gray
A process is on-going for each financial year, through the budget process, in terms of the allocation that goes to FMPG. Part of that is about assessing what money will be required in order to continue the work that is on-going. That is partly what has triggered my being here today, because there was a need for additional rigour in relation to the estimates that were given by the chief executive in September.
I am hopeful that we will be in a position where there will not be any further requirement for funding. However, it is not something that I can absolutely guarantee. We are in a very difficult economic situation. Everybody saw the very disappointing UK inflation figures yesterday. Inflation is sitting at a stubbornly high level and we are in a very turbulent economic situation, which will have an impact. However, I am hopeful that that impact can be minimised as far as possible. Obviously, there is a process to inform Parliament should there be any further requests, as there was last year, for an increase in funding. I will ensure that that process is followed, as it was last year.
Public Audit Committee
Written Authority: Completion of Vessel 802
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Neil Gray
The work that Mr Cook has outlined is being led by Ms Hall. Mr Tydeman has already sought to deliver productivity improvements and learn lessons from the process of getting vessel 801 to the stage that it is at, which is very close to completion. The substantial element of cost and, therefore, risk to the overall contract is the completion of 802. There was no value-for-money issue with 801. The issue was with 802, because it is further away from being completed.
As I have outlined, my hope is that, by being aware of the issues that there have been—which were, as I said, mostly due to the design issues of 801—we will be able to learn enough to mitigate as far as possible in relation to 802. That cannot be guaranteed until the process is continued, but it is certainly my hope. As I set out in that correspondence and as I have said in the meetings that I have had with Mr Tydeman, my expectation is that the yard will do everything possible to mitigate the risk of any further cost or time overruns.
09:30Public Audit Committee
Written Authority: Completion of Vessel 802
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Neil Gray
No. The First Minister set out the Government’s position, which is that we do not expect that to be the case. The chair has a role to play and we have communicated our position to the chair very clearly. It is for the chair to go through the process that he needs to go through. I respect that and I respect his position in this case, but I also share what I presume is the displeasure of Mr Hoy and of colleagues on the committee and in Parliament at the idea of there being performance-related bonuses for a contract that has overrun in terms of both time and cost.
Public Audit Committee
Written Authority: Completion of Vessel 802
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Neil Gray
My understanding of the written authority process is that the Deputy First Minister and the First Minister are required to be part of the process of issuing written authority because of its nature. I will need to check, but I am pretty sure that they will have been sighted on my decision to decline the publication of the report, but that was a decision for me and Mr Irwin.
Public Audit Committee
Written Authority: Completion of Vessel 802
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Neil Gray
Yes.
Public Audit Committee
Written Authority: Completion of Vessel 802
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Neil Gray
I met colleagues present, who were at that time fed up of seeing my face on the screen, because I had requested quite a number of meetings and discussions. The First Minister and the Deputy First Minister were part of those as well, because of the nature of the written authority process. We ensured that we had rigorously interrogated the information that was before us.
Public Audit Committee
Written Authority: Completion of Vessel 802
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Neil Gray
No. If an accountable officer had been concerned at any stage, they would have had to request written authority to proceed.
Public Audit Committee
Written Authority: Completion of Vessel 802
Meeting date: 22 June 2023
Neil Gray
I and my colleagues are in constant dialogue with Mr Tydeman and I am looking forward to having the opportunity to visit the yard in the summer recess in order to see for myself the progress that is being made.
Lessons are being learned for the delivery of 802 from what has happened with 801. We have spoken about the design difficulties that led to cost increases and delays with 801. My hope is certainly that that knowledge will minimise any further delays and any other cost increases. Clearly, it is not something that I can absolutely guarantee, but we are having discussions with the yard about ensuring that everything that is possible is being done to expedite the process and to minimise costs at all times while doing so—not least because of the overriding concern that I had in taking the decision to issue written authority, which was about delivering the vessels for our island communities as quick as possible.
I hope that, in Mr Tydeman’s contribution to the committee, he was able to say that that is similarly his overriding objective at present.
