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 5714 contributions
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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
I want to go back to and pick up on Rhoda Grant’s first question. Perhaps I can illustrate my concern by telling you a little story—it will not be too long, convener.
I was contacted by a constituent—a scientific adviser—who objected to the salmon farm in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. They felt that they had engaged all that they could, but their views had still not been taken into account. As a scientific adviser, they had also written on behalf of a marine sector association with regard to the original application, as well as personally—
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
Will there be a risk assessment of the possibility of people losing jobs? Rhoda Grant said that people are unable to get homes in places where they want to live. If a salmon farm can no longer operate because the salmon do not survive and it has to move away, those jobs are lost. Are we assessing that risk?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
Convener, the responses to your questions answered my questions.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
In the Bute house agreement, there is a commitment to strengthen the regulatory framework around farmed salmon escapee incidents, and it is reassuring that that includes introducing proportionate penalties for fish escapees, which put at risk our wild salmon and other marine life. Currently, the revenue raised from that goes to support wild salmonid conservation and research, which is important. However, I am interested in hearing whether the Government will consider giving some or all of it to the regulating bodies to improve enforcement of regulations, given the high rates of non-compliance by salmon farming companies and the current reliance on self-reporting.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
I want to pick up on another part of Rhoda Grant’s question, but this time my focus is not so much on housing as on jobs.
You are talking about trying to develop a sustainable vision on aquaculture. There is ample evidence of the risk that climate change and the resulting warming seas pose to salmon farming, especially on the west coast. Salmon stop eating when the water temperature hits 18°C, and they cannot survive beyond 21°C or 22°C. If the industry could become unviable on the west coast, should we be planning now for a just transition for workers, as well as regulating the sector so that the sea bed, in particular, has good environmental status when farms move from their current locations, or possibly even go out of business? Is the Scottish Government undertaking a risk assessment of the future of salmon farming on the west coast and the livelihoods that currently depend on it?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
I need to get to this part, convener, please—
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
I understand that. What I am getting at is that there is a problem with non-compliance and the fact that the industry self-reports. I also understand that there are budget challenges. It seems that, if we brought in proportionate penalties, it would be great if that money went to supporting our enforcement in the sector. I understand that conservation and research are equally important, but given the situation in the salmon farming industry, we need to be stronger and more robust in regulating it.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
I am not asking about that application. I am just providing an illustration, and then I will get to the point.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
I will make it less direct and more generic, then. Thank you for correcting me.
I have been contacted by a constituent who has scientific experience. Having done all that they can to express concerns, they have come to me with a sense of exasperation and have basically asked, “What can communities do to stop this industry completely wrecking the inshore waters on the west coast?” How will you reassure my constituent that communities will have a genuine say on new farms in their inshore waters and that such a right will be safeguarded and improved?
