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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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Jim Fairlie
The fair fares review is looking into all the systems and agreements that we have in place; when it reports, we will have another discussion.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Jim Fairlie
Good morning, convener, and thank you very much for having me along. I am very pleased to take on my new portfolio as Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity, which includes bus and concessionary travel, and I thank the committee for inviting me to discuss the draft order.
The order sets the reimbursement rate and capped level of funding for the national bus travel concession scheme for older and disabled persons in 2024-25, as well as the reimbursement rate for the national bus travel concession scheme for young persons in the coming financial year. In doing so, the order gives effect to the agreement that we reached in January with the Confederation of Passenger Transport, which represents Scottish bus operators.
The objective of the order is to enable operators to continue to be reimbursed for journeys that are made under the older and disabled persons scheme and the young persons scheme after the expiry of the current reimbursement provisions on 31 March 2024. It specifies the reimbursement rates for both schemes and the capped level of funding for the older and disabled persons scheme for the next financial year from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.
The model for setting reimbursement rates for the older and disabled persons scheme was established in 2010. As a result of developments in the wider bus operating market since then, it was necessary to review the analytical assumptions that underpinned the model. A new model has now been developed for the older and disabled persons scheme, which considers the latest available data and evidence on industry costs, passenger demand and travel behaviours.
The evidence that is required to produce a refreshed YPS model is still emerging, as the scheme is still in its relative infancy and travel behaviours are continuing to develop. Accordingly, it was agreed with the CPT that the reimbursement rates for the young persons scheme for the current year will be retained for 2024-25. For the young persons scheme, the proposed reimbursement rates are 43.6 per cent of the adult single fare for journeys made by passengers aged five to 15, and 81.2 per cent of that fare for journeys made by 16 to 21-year-olds. As in the past year, a budget cap has not been set for the young persons scheme in 2024-25.
The proposed reimbursement rate in the financial year 2024-25 for the older and disabled persons scheme has been amended from 55.9 per cent to 55 per cent of the adult single fare, and the capped level of funding will be £203.5 million. A realistic level has been set, which takes into account patronage levels and recovery in the scheme since Covid-19.
The rates that have been set are consistent with the aims that are set out in the legislation that established both schemes: that bus operators should be no better and no worse off as a result of their participating in the schemes; and that they will provide a degree of stability for bus operators.
Free bus travel enables people to access local services and to get the health benefits of a more active lifestyle. It should also help to strengthen our response to the climate emergency, support our green recovery and embed sustainable travel habits in young people. The order provides that those benefits will continue for a further year on a basis that is fair for operators and affordable to taxpayers.
I commend the order to the committee, and I will be happy to answer any questions.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Jim Fairlie
Yes, but we have far better historical data for the older persons scheme.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Jim Fairlie
Yes, it can be shared with the committee.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Jim Fairlie
That will very much depend on the level of the cap and of the use. You are asking me to answer hypotheticals, Mr Simpson.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Jim Fairlie
Is what not written down in legislation?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Jim Fairlie
I think that I have already explained that. Let me see whether I can find this in writing so that it makes sense to you. If monitoring in-year suggests that the claims are likely to exceed the cap, claims for the latter part of the year are paid at a lower rate than that set out in the legislation, so as to keep total payments under the scheme within the statutory cap. If this was the case, Transport Scotland would write to operators as soon as possible during the financial year to let them know.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Jim Fairlie
We are in a situation in which we have a fixed budget—
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Jim Fairlie
I have not managed up to now.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Jim Fairlie
There is definitely scope for us to get more people on to buses. I think that your question alludes to how many people we can get on. We are going to encourage as many people as we possibly can.
The young persons scheme has been hugely successful from a number of points of view. It is allowing young people to take jobs that they would not have been able to do without the scheme. I heard about a young girl who lives in my constituency who is travelling to Edinburgh to work in a job in the arts that she would not have been able to do without the scheme. Young people are able to go to education facilities that they would not normally have been able to attend.
More important for me is that they can see family—because families are spread all over the country now. Young people are able to jump on a bus to go and see their grandparents. To me, that is absolutely fantastic, and it encourages use of public transport.
We want to make sure, as much as we possibly can, that more people get the opportunity to use buses. That is the benefit of the scheme. To answer your crystal ball question, I do not know what the figure will top out at. The more people the better, is what I would say.
