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 634 contributions
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 September 2025
Sarah Boyack
Thanks. Would any other of our witnesses like to come in on that issue?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 September 2025
Sarah Boyack
Thanks very much. We have had a lot of really good recommendations in those answers, which the committee will need to build into its own recommendations. Back to you, convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 September 2025
Sarah Boyack
The houses will be here in the future, however.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 September 2025
Sarah Boyack
Thanks, cabinet secretary. We cannot afford to get it wrong, can we?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 September 2025
Sarah Boyack
We have to bring it all together and get that stuff happening now.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 September 2025
Sarah Boyack
I want to ask about energy-from-waste emissions, which have gone up. I know that new plants are being built, and are getting planning permission, but I want to focus on the connection with the CCS infrastructure and with heat networks. In my region, we have the Millerhill project and the Shawfair development, with thousands of houses connected to a heat network that is powered by energy from waste. However, levels of waste are still going up. How can we get a joined-up approach that ensures that our energy-from-waste infrastructure works to reduce carbon emissions?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 September 2025
Sarah Boyack
My questions will focus on the projected impacts of climate change in Scotland over the next 10, 20 and 50 years. How do we begin to plan for that, and which of the changes are likely to be the most significant? We have already talked about flooding, forest fires, heatwaves and droughts. How do we plan for those, and how will their impacts be felt in different regions in Scotland? How do we prioritise taking action, in time and in the right areas?
Dr Murtagh, you are nodding your head very enthusiastically—that is a big mistake. [Laughter.]
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 September 2025
Sarah Boyack
How do we plan for that? We are building infrastructure that will be around for 30 or 50 years. One flood project failed to work because the flood level was worse than anticipated. How do we make sure that the people who are planning and building that infrastructure are ready to do it? How do we build in responding to the risks caused by differing temperature levels?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 September 2025
Sarah Boyack
Does anyone else want to come in on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 9 September 2025
Sarah Boyack
The risk is that we build houses that are more energy efficient and warmer, and then suddenly we need air conditioning instead. Everything is shifting, and the question is how we plan for all of that and get the information out.
Professor Renaud, do you want to come in on that?