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
Disability Employment Gap
Meeting date: 25 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
That is what I am trying to understand. Were people holding back from commissioning because they thought that they would have a larger amount? That is what I am trying to work out.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Energy Bill
Meeting date: 24 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
If I may, I will continue my questions on that area. You are suggesting that there should be consent both ways with regard to the environmental impact and mitigations as a result of the Energy Bill but that the implications for Scotland are clearly far bigger because of the scale of the operations in the ScotWind programme, and potentially ScotWind 2.
Is that what you will seek as regards changes to the Energy Bill—to ensure that consent will work both ways? If so, is any action required with regard to the interaction with the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, which I mentioned earlier and which the UK Government is pursuing? Currently, there is only consultation with Scottish ministers.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Energy Bill
Meeting date: 24 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Can you confirm that the issue for both Governments is how we can effectively reduce the consenting period but also improve the process and have certainty for the industry to ensure that the developments take place as planned? If you have to come back to the committee with a supplementary LCM, is that likely to be the area of concern?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Energy Bill
Meeting date: 24 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
How do you future proof for legislation and changes that will happen? You mentioned the potential issues around heat networks. Does the UK Energy Bill present a wider risk to devolved powers or is it likely to limit future actions of Scottish ministers and the Scottish Parliament, particularly on energy?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Energy Bill
Meeting date: 24 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
You say that the immediate issue relates to the offshore situation. Do the wider aspects of the Energy Bill, such as the provisions on hydrogen or carbon capture, give rise to any potential issues with onshore environmental aspects? I suppose that we need to consider the onshore environmental aspects of any developments that might take place and the mitigations for those. I refer, for example, to the Acorn project and work at Grangemouth.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Energy Bill
Meeting date: 24 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
I want to explore whether you can help the committee to understand any potential relationship between the UK Government’s Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill and what might come through the Energy Bill in relation to mitigation and environmental aspects.
I perfectly understand that we want to see biodiversity mitigation and peatland restoration in relation to onshore developments. With offshore developments, there will clearly be a biodiversity impact from major developments, and we will want to make sure that there are mitigations. Environmental law and mitigations are devolved competences of this Parliament.
We published our report on the UK Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill at the end of December, and one of the concerns that we noted was that the new system would mean that the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the UK Government would not have to consult the Scottish Parliament or the Scottish Government on mitigation in relation to cross-border areas, which could clearly include the sea.
Mitigation for environmental issues would therefore be under the auspices of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which could have a major impact. For example, as part of our mitigations, we might want to develop seaweed farms or do something in relation to our bird populations in particular. However, there would be no responsibility, accountability or planning and funding control from the Scottish Government. Those things would transfer to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
If I have got that wrong, please let me know, but I am concerned about the interaction between the two bills.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Budget 2023-24
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
I politely point out that that was happening in 2021-22, and that the shift in that regard probably took place about five years ago. I agree, though, that VisitScotland is very effective with its marketing spend.
I will move on to another area, which is the need for Scotland to improve its productivity rate. It is great that the gap between Scotland and the UK on that has been closed, but recruitment and retention are key issues, particularly in the current labour market. The programme for government mentions support and funding for a pilot of a four-day working week. Where is the funding support for that in the coming year, and what is your view on the policy going forward? We are about to see the results of a UK-wide pilot, which I think will be positive. I do not want the Scottish Government to fall behind on that agenda.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
National Strategy for Economic Transformation
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
I move on to the climate emergency skills action plan. You have been generous with your time, so short answers will suffice. Is the refreshed plan on course to be published in 2023, as per the NSET delivery plans? How will the refresh interact with the on-going review of Scotland’s skills landscape, which is being led by James Withers?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Budget 2023-24
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Michael Matheson made it clear that the planning constraints are being addressed by upskilling and expanding his areas of responsibility in terms of staffing. I hope that you can support that, as finance secretary.
Could you address my question about Scottish Enterprise’s focus and that of Scottish Development International? Will the focus be only on inward investment, or can you reassure us that Scottish Enterprise’s work will also support the supply chain?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Budget 2023-24
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Finally, I will move on to the issue of jobs and skills in the renewable energy sector. Yesterday, in the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee’s session on the budget, the cabinet secretary Michael Matheson talked about the opportunities in that sector, and I questioned him specifically about hydrogen. He said that the constraints in the renewable energy sector are largely to do with the availability of labour—we know that there are real pressures on that—as well as planning consents and skills.
In a tight labour market, it is important to be able to transfer the skills that we have already. Looking at the budget lines, however, and the pressures in this portfolio, Scottish Enterprise now has a clear emphasis on the issue and finally has hydrogen as one of the key sectors. There is also a big focus on inward investment. If all the funding is focused on inward investment, how can we ensure that domestic companies are being supported in relation to jobs and manufacturing? It would be helpful if you could go through that.
