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.
Criathragan Hide all filters
Displaying 1640 contributions
|
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
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
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
You have been very direct. That is helpful.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
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
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
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
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
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
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
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?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
In that case, I will hand back to the convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
It would be helpful if you could send the committee any examples of good projects that you have seen across Scotland.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you—that is helpful.
Economy and Fair Work Committee (Virtual)
Subsidy Control Bill
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Yes. Thank you.
I come to Professor Bell. On the decision to include agriculture in the Subsidy Control Bill, although it has previously been separate, it is clear that agricultural subsidy is a devolved matter. The bill is a result of Brexit, but I do not think that even supporters of Brexit would necessarily think that Brexit should remove, limit or reduce powers of devolution. What are your thoughts about the implications of that, particularly as Scottish agriculture is quite distinct, so we need particular subsidies?
Yesterday, the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee heard from local authorities that private funding at scale will be needed along with public funding to tackle net zero. It is clear that net zero requires a streamlined subsidy scheme because, to tackle the climate emergency, state subsidy will have to be swift, smart and strategic. From your experience of devolution, does the Subsidy Control Bill lend itself to good policy making and good results for agriculture and net zero?
