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 1621 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
RET has been successful in bringing lots of cars over. We have heard it suggested that it might help with the pursuit of net zero and, indeed, reduce the impact of excess carbon if we were to encourage people to leave their cars on the mainland and made electric cars available for use on the islands. Gordon Martin, what is your view on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Because families going across to the islands often take many cars, it is felt that such a proposal would reduce the number of cars on the islands. Martyn, do you have any comment to make?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you. Martyn Gray, do the terms of the Clyde and Hebrides and northern isles ferry services contracts unduly limit the ability to respond to customer needs? Does there need to be more decentralised decision making about what happens in problem situations? Might there need to be more flexibility in the new contracts, once they are tendered, to give more decision-making powers locally, with operations being informed by the crew? Might that help to resolve issues?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I am sure that the committee will be very interested to see that report, but we would need to liaise with the RMT about the timing, given that, in January, we will probably be coming to a close with the inquiry.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Gordon Martin, might there be some way of making greater flexibility part of the new contracts, with the new tendering? I suppose that we want responsiveness that provides for decisions that are informed, safe and more practical.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
If you do not mind, convener, I want to put the same two questions to Martyn Gray from Nautilus International. First, Martyn, what is your critique of the proposal to have a social enterprise or community-owned company take on one or two services? Secondly, is there anything from project Neptune whose taking forward into the connectivity plan would be a positive move?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 15 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
On the basis that we do not expect there to be a tender and that new contracts will be issued, we should consider how the contracts could be improved. Time is limited, but if there is anything that the RMT or Nautilus think should be in the new contracts, to improve them and to provide flexibility, we would be interested to hear your views. We have to make recommendations, and there is to be a new connectivity plan, as well as new contracts.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Supply Chain
Meeting date: 9 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Good morning, minister, and thank you for your letter responding to our report. Of course, you also gave evidence to the committee during the inquiry, so this is the second time that we are engaging with you on the resilience of the supply chain in Scotland. It is a continuing issue, not least because of the on-going issues around Covid, as we have just heard, as well as issues around the hard Brexit and the impact of the situation in Ukraine.
I will focus on manufacturing, engineering and construction. We know that we cannot micromanage private markets, and the international obligations are understood, but we can create incentives. The committee is interested in the extent to which the experience of the disruptions that we have talked about has influenced change in supply chain markets generally.
On construction, we have heard about real disruptions over the period and about a desire in the sector to be able to source more locally, if that is possible. That is resilient and contributes to achieving net zero by tackling the issue of carbon miles. What improvements have there been in that regard?
In relation to timber—we have a debate in Parliament this afternoon on forestry and net zero—what improvements have there been in local sourcing of timber? Can we use business regulations in that regard? To what extent can you influence pan-Government measures that can help, such as business regulations and measures on low-carbon materials? What is the potential for some kind of specification of carbon miles? That might have to be internationally agreed, but it is probably the direction in which we are going.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Supply Chain
Meeting date: 9 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Before you bring in Dermot Rhatigan, minister, I want to ask about the concept of carbon miles becoming more of a factor in the private and public sectors. What engagement are you having on that? Clearly such an approach makes sense; it will help to deliver net zero, and it is something that is not just local, but national and international. Where are we in Scotland in looking at that issue?
