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 1524 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Good morning. Thank you all for joining us.
Robbie, you mentioned the draft national planning framework 4, which will place a number of new net zero-related commitments on developers and planning authorities. I am interested to find out whether you think that the profession is prepared for such changes and what you think needs to happen. What should planners be doing to help to deliver net zero?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you very much for that.
Jane, can you comment on the draft NPF4 and your views on the role of planners in particular? Does the young generation of planners see itself as leading on net zero within local authorities?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I want ask Jamie Brogan for his overview: is there a demand for reskilling and upskilling in local authorities? I would like to focus on local authorities, in particular, because they and their partners are the focus of our inquiry. Is there a demand for that training and are there any bottlenecks that might constrain it? If there is not sufficient demand, does it need to be stimulated to make sure that the upskilling and reskilling happens right across lots of different areas of staff and professions within local authorities?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Fiona Hyslop
How far have we gone on that journey? Is it the same across all of Scotland or are some local authorities better at doing this than others? Are there any good examples you might want to give us?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you very much.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Fiona Hyslop
That was a very comprehensive answer on NPF4 and what we need to do in that regard.
I want to ask about the profession itself. Are you saying that it is just a case of having the right evidence, the right guidance and so on? As a profession, do planners not need to change and develop themselves? Are you saying that no upskilling is required for existing planners in relation to net zero? Could they just hit the ground running now, or will they need to develop professionally?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Pam, you talked about the importance of and need for a delivery plan for the draft NPF4. However, that plan is not there. What would you like to see in it?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I am not sure whether you have finished, Pam. You have frozen.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
National Strategy for Economic Transformation
Meeting date: 16 March 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Good morning. The focus on transformation and change means that you want to do things differently. There is a focus on the entrepreneurial aspect as well as on the need to be streamlined and focused on delivery. One of the things that is mentioned in the entrepreneurship section of the strategy is expansion to all sectors of the tech-scaler model. That model comes with a cost. Expanding it to all sectors will mean that it is not necessarily streamlined or focused, but it will have a cost, which will mean that other things will not happen unless you have additional budget. Will you unpack some of that thinking for us?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
National Strategy for Economic Transformation
Meeting date: 16 March 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I am sure that, at some point, the committee will have to focus on what is not going to be done.
I will move on to questions about resilience in supply chains. “Delivering Economic Prosperity” is a 10-year transformational strategy. However, we are dealing, and will continue to deal, with the consequences of Brexit. We are still living through a pandemic. International security issues and the war in Ukraine will also have global economic consequences. Therefore, a resilient supply chain is more important than ever.
You focused your earlier remarks on ScotWind and the supply chain for new and developing industries. However, during the 10 years of the strategy, an important focus will remain on resilience in the bread-and-butter industries—our foundational economy. I refer to food and drink, engineering and construction, for example. What measures in the strategy will enable Scotland to build a more resilient supply chain overall to help us to ensure that we have economic security?
