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.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
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.
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.
There are two types of keyword search:
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.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
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:
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.
Displaying 1524 contributions
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 19 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
It is okay, as I would like to move on. If you are thinking about figures of £25 million for resource and £24 million for capital for phase 2, that is almost equivalent to the whole of the tourism budget. It is not an insubstantial amount to be missing from the budget, although I think that people will take comfort from the comments that you made, especially those on the tourism sector.
If we look at the budget before us, we can see that the resource budget for VisitScotland is flatlined. The capital expenditure has reduced, but we know that, by and large, VisitScotland’s refurbishments have been completed. Can you give an assurance that the rural tourism infrastructure fund—in which, as you know, I have a keen interest—will not be reduced as a result of the capital reduction?
That leaves the “Tourism special projects” line as the line in the tourism budget that will experience a major reduction. That relates to recovery, as you have explained. Can you provide reassurance on the capital for impact for communities and reassure us that the rural tourism infrastructure fund will be protected? Can you also comment on the fact that phase 2 of the tourism recovery plan might double the tourism budget as it is currently set out in the budget if and when you can get the resources for it?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 19 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Good morning, minister. I want to cover agriculture. In its submission on the Subsidy Control Bill, NFU Scotland has said:
“It is critical that devolved governments can continue to develop agricultural policies that suit the unique domestic needs and policy ambitions that are essential for rural businesses and the communities and the economies they underpin. The inclusion of agriculture in the Subsidy Control Bill could severely constrain this.
Safeguards are already in place to secure the integrity of the UK internal market through existing international commitments (WTO Agreement on Agriculture) and the UK controls”.
It also says:
“Agricultural policy is devolved and must not be re-nationalised via the back door by UK-wide subsidy control measures.”
Given that even the agricultural leadership of NFU Scotland is saying that, in terms of your discussions, why is the UK Government including agriculture when it is not normally put together with other subsidies and subsidy control measures? Why is that happening?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you for joining us. I am interested in the positives and what community organisations want to do in the net zero space. If there are no local authority funding streams as yet, what support can local authorities give? I am particularly interested in heat in buildings. Does the power of local organisations to influence and deliver on that offer great possibility? As has been mentioned, volunteers are the backbone of community organisations. If central funding is given mostly for capital or projects, will people capacity be an issue? If councils are interested only in what they finance—or, to be brutal, in the short term, as we have heard—what is needed for the people resource to help communities to do their projects?
I would like to hear from all three witnesses on that, if possible. After that, I will be happy to hand back to the convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you. That was a detailed question. I am interested in the context. Can the minister briefly expand on why nitrogen is so important, including perhaps in relation to greenhouse gas emissions generally? I am conscious of time, so a brief answer would be helpful.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
What challenges are there in that regard, and what would better enable that work to happen?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
You have been very direct. That is helpful.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I want to talk about conservation designations and to ask the panel about the challenges for buildings, particularly in terms of potential restrictions on glazing and insulation options.
I know that Historic Environment Scotland has been active on innovation through work with the City of Edinburgh Council. Can a balance be struck for historic urban environments, with celebration and preservation of them while future-proofing them against climate change? We know that there has been a successful conservation area regeneration scheme across Scotland. Is there anything like a conservation area climate change scheme that would enable us to tackle conservation areas in particular?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Does anybody else want to comment? I know from my experience as a minister that there is work going on in that area. I suppose that we need to find out from local authorities why the work has not been rolled out as much as it could have been.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you. Partnership is a theme of the inquiry.
I move on to water and the challenges of working together. You talk in your route map about innovative partnerships with local authorities and public sector agencies. I am particularly interested in your work with Scottish Water. There has been some good work done on flood prevention between local authorities, Scottish Water and Scottish Canals. From the perspective of Scottish Canals, more could be done with West Lothian Council and the City of Edinburgh Council on preventative work. Could you comment on opportunities in that respect?
We are limited by time, so could you also address issues around rivers and Scotland’s waterways? We know from the Environmental Audit Committee in England about concerns about levels of pollution. Scottish Water’s net zero emissions route map might be helpful in that respect. It would be interesting to hear your views on partnership working, particularly in relation to water.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
That is very interesting. Does anyone else want to come in on water before I hand back to the convener?