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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Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Supply Chains
Meeting date: 26 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I know that it is virtual, but I can feel your passion there. When we started our inquiry, there were real constraints on around supermarkets and food supply, so I would appreciate your take on where things currently stand in relation to the resilience of our food supply.
You also talked about carbon miles and what powers we have in Scotland to make that part of any public sector contract. Globally, there are movements in that direction, but it would have implications for food and drink in particular. I am interested in that.
I thank you for your note on the construction supply chain. Cement has come up a number of times. The enormous amount of energy that is required for cement production has implications for net zero, so innovation would be needed. The constraints in the construction supply chain during the past year are another reason why we need resilience in that regard.
Perhaps you can talk about those products: food and drink, and cement. You already mentioned timber, but if you want to add anything on that, you can do so.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I have a separate question, convener. Do you want to bring in Mark Ruskell on this issue, or can I move on?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
We have heard about the importance of speed and scale in collaboration between the public sector, councils and private companies when it comes to co-investment in net zero schemes. The committee has heard that that will be key to delivering net zero. At the same time, the Economy and Fair Work Committee has heard about potential risk aversion in councils as a result of the centralising Subsidy Control Bill, which is going through Westminster. We need subsidy control, but we also need to ensure that the pace, ambition and clarity, as has been mentioned, and what can be delivered in local areas—[Inaudible.]—developed by the Scottish Government. That would be helpful in pushing ahead with the collaboration and co-investment of councils and businesses in net zero schemes at the speed and scale that we need.
I put that first of all to Tracy Black and then to Barry McCulloch.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Tim, I am very interested in what you said about looking at this from a systems point of view and not looking just at the separate sectors. Heat in buildings and the role of councils are the focus of a lot of our interest, but your point about the importance of looking at energy production and distribution as a package, as well as looking at what is useful in houses, is an interesting one. Is that the area that you were thinking about?
I will also ask my other question now, because I am conscious of the time. Will you talk about pension fund investment? People have said that the local authority pension funds could and should be investing in this area. What needs to change in order to encourage that? Is there a danger that the easier option is carbon offsetting and natural capital investment, as opposed to developing a partnership for decarbonisation?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you; it would be good to hear back from you on that.
Barry, it would be good to hear from you with regard to small businesses that might be doing joint projects with councils that involve some kind of subsidy or incentive from the council. How do we avoid risk aversion for competition and subsidy issues?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you. I am conscious of the time, so I will move on to Sandy Begbie. You were talking about potential equity release products and packages. You could perhaps see a mortgage modification product in the private sector, but in the public sector, when looking at local authorities and the securitisation of assets, are you looking at some kind of—dare I say it—private sector share in publicly owned stock? That would be a massive change for many local authorities, but do you see a risk-based approach on a city deal basis as a potential solution? Sandy, do you have any comments on that or on pensions?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you. I will pass back to the convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you—it was comprehensive. I ask Barry McCulloch the same question.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 25 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Liam Kerr said that the regulations are being delayed again. No—the regulations will be delayed only if the committee and the Parliament do not approve them.
The scheme is a hugely important one for tackling waste in Scotland. Undoubtedly, there have been some challenges and, indeed, disappointments along the way in trying to deliver it. However, in terms of innovation, the reach of the scheme and what it will deliver, I can tell the committee that, in my constituency, the supermarket chain Aldi has already introduced its first pilot deposit and return scheme.
Scotland wants us to get on with the scheme. Yes, we need to scrutinise it. I have listened to colleagues, and I recommend that the committee should take a strong line in scrutinising the development and implementation of the scheme. However, the Parliament has a duty and responsibility to tackle waste and to drive forward our agenda on net zero and wider environmental issues, and I strongly recommend that the committee should vote in favour of the statutory instrument.
