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 807 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 3 April 2025
Jim Fairlie
All local transport authorities in Scotland now have the power to start developing their franchising proposals. Later this spring, we will lodge a further set of regulations, which will focus on the process of transitioning from the current commercial market into a franchise, as well as transitioning out of a franchise. At the same time, officials are developing guidance for local transport authorities on the franchising process. That will cover the preparation of a franchising framework, the audit process, what an authority should expect when going through the franchising approval process, and the process for commencing a franchise.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 3 April 2025
Jim Fairlie
This week, ScotRail has commenced its operation of ticket offices in accordance with the revised opening hours, which reflect the changing preferences of its customers. I am pleased to confirm that no jobs or working hours have been lost. ScotRail has assessed the requirement for staff to allow it to adhere to the revised opening times, and it currently carries out recruitment for ticket office staff where necessary.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 3 April 2025
Jim Fairlie
I could not agree more with Paul Sweeney. This is an absolutely fantastic opportunity for RTPs and other organisations to take control of the public service provision of buses. I absolutely accept that point.
From day 1, we have been quite clear that we want to give local authorities and transport authorities the ability to make that transition to franchising, and the provisions that we have put in place do exactly that.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 3 April 2025
Jim Fairlie
Although opening hours at ScotRail’s ticket offices have remained unchanged over the past three decades, ticket office sales have reduced from 78 to 14 per cent during that period. Scottish Rail Holdings and ScotRail have rightly reviewed the situation to ensure that they are delivering services that meet customer expectations. The adjustments to the ticket office opening hours that have been implemented will enable ScotRail staff to be redeployed to focus more directly on supporting passengers. That touches on some of what the member has spoken about, such as accessibility for disabled passengers. It will enable better assistance for passengers and staff to be more visible in order to deter antisocial behaviour and reduce fare evasion.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 3 April 2025
Jim Fairlie
ScotRail undertook research and carefully considered when tickets were being purchased and when passenger assistance was required, in order to ensure that stations would be staffed when those travelling needed it. As ticket offices are not closing, passengers will still be able to get that assistance from staff. ScotRail has also given assurances that, outwith those times, tickets can still be purchased on the train, including tickets for discounted fares. Those are important improvements that we all want to see in a publicly run railway service.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jim Fairlie
I am more than happy to follow up with Graham Simpson in writing about the specific programme that he is talking about.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jim Fairlie
The Scottish Government has not made such an assessment at a national or regional level. The Scottish Government holds multiple data sets that relate to land use, but they alone could not support an assessment of the potential loss of agricultural land. Scotland’s fourth land use strategy is due to be published by March 2026 and, throughout its development, we will work with stakeholders regarding the multiple demands that are placed on our land and the fine balances that must be found as we move forward.
The national planning framework 4 soils policy supports new development proposals on prime agricultural land or locally important agricultural land of lesser quality in limited circumstances only.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jim Fairlie
The Scottish Government invests in forest research and science, and it jointly funds research with the United Kingdom Government and other UK devolved Administrations to further our knowledge and understanding of areas such as tree pests and diseases, tree breeding and forest resilience.
We are supporting plans for a clonal archive of resistant ash trees, which will be located in Scotland’s public forest estate. That is part of on-going work to support the breeding of disease-resistant ash trees.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jim Fairlie
We are progressing the priorities that are set out in our vision for Scottish agriculture, which are high-quality food production, thriving businesses, climate action, nature restoration and a just transition.
We have maintained direct payments and launched the whole farm plan, and we introduced the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024. Through the agricultural reform programme, we are working collaboratively to deliver a sustainable future for Scottish agriculture. We continue to prioritise the agri-environment climate scheme, with the 2024 round of awards increasing funding on the previous year by £3.9 million. The recently announced £14 million future farming investment scheme will encourage climate-friendly farming and support efficiency and environmental sustainability.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jim Fairlie
I understand Monica Lennon’s point about the definition. The Scottish Government is working on a code of practice, which is being co-developed with the industry to give us a better understanding of what it should look like. We will bring forward those measures in due course.
