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 2999 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Climate Cafés
Meeting date: 5 October 2023
Mark Ruskell
I thank John Swinney for bringing forward this members’ business debate, which I gather is his first in 17 years. I was trying to remember what the previous debate was about—I might even have spoken in it. It is clear that he has been a strong advocate for the communities in his constituency and for community action in his constituency for many years. I am delighted that he chose Climate Cafés as the topic for the debate, because they are a Perthshire success story that has spread around the world.
I notice that many people who have been involved in Climate Cafés in Scotland are with us in the chamber. I have met a number of those wonderful people, who do fantastic work in their communities. I pay tribute to Jess Pepper, who has been an astonishing climate leader in Scotland for many years, following on from her father’s work, and a fantastic community activist in Dunkeld and Birnam.
I would like to mention a young woman called Ruby Flatley—a young activist who came through Dunkeld and Birnam Climate Café. At the age of 13, she led and spoke at the huge climate march that took place here in Edinburgh just ahead of the Paris conference of the parties. At that time, she was running a series of youth projects through Dunkeld and Birnam Climate Café. I am pleased to say that I understand that she is still involved in the Climate Café movement today. I welcomed her to the Parliament in 2016, when she was my nominated local hero at the opening ceremony. It is wonderful to see the movement nurture and empower young people.
It is clear that communities need to be at the heart of climate action. Over the past couple of weeks, we have seen climate action undermined and we have seen conspiracy theories being given a platform at the highest level of United Kingdom politics. The need for public discussion, education, awareness and empowerment is so important.
We can never take it for granted that some kind of implicit social licence comes with climate action. The conversation will change over the years. I notice that the conversation in Dunkeld and Birnam about the A9 dualling project, for example, is very different and has changed over the years.
Climate Cafés are important for education and as a laboratory of ideas for action. I do not know whether Mr Swinney remembers the first agreement between the Scottish Greens and the Scottish National Party, which was back in 2007. It was quite thin, but we did agree to establish a climate challenge fund to provide effective funding and seed action in communities. That fund was successful and ran for more than a decade. The Government is now investing in climate action hubs to take action up to the next level and pull together initiatives on the ground. Last week in Stirling, the minister, Lorna Slater, announced a range of hubs.
Such hubs can build only on what is established on the ground. The role of Climate Cafés is to incubate new ideas and get the conversation going to build the innovation. An excellent example of that, which Mr Swinney mentioned, comes from the HEAT Project in Blairgowrie, which emerged from a Climate Café conversation that recognised that those of us who live in properties in rural Scotland that are hard to heat need support and bespoke advice. That is exactly what the HEAT Project has been providing.
Perhaps the cabinet secretary can respond to the following points in her concluding remarks. I urge the Government to look at how we can make room within that community climate funding to support that kind of initiative because, important as it is to scale up initiatives that are already there on the ground, even mighty Perthshire oaks have to grow from acorns. The important role of the Climate Cafés is to seed those ideas around Scotland and around the world, so that they can be built on and scaled up and really deliver the action that we need to tackle the climate emergency. I hope that the Government can find ways to support and to grow that movement and to inspire future generations of people such as Ruby.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Mark Ruskell
Hold on.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Mark Ruskell
You piqued my interest, convener, by talking about the licensing of hunting and I would like to get NatureScot’s view on that. Do you think that there is any circumstance in which a mounted hunt could credibly claim to meet the criteria for the issuing of a licence?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Mark Ruskell
That is useful to know.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Mark Ruskell
Are no other changes planned on the back of ESS’s review?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Mark Ruskell
Have you fed that directly into the biodiversity strategy and the forthcoming climate plan?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Mark Ruskell
Okay, thanks. I will stick with David Harley for my next question, and then I might bring Nick Halfhide back in. I want to ask about the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023, which is now in place, although the dramatic cliff edge of a lot of EU legislation being rescinded did not materialise. You have perhaps noted the committee’s interest in the withdrawal of the legislation on the national air quality performance framework and the lack of clarity about what it will be replaced with. Does SEPA have reflections on the 2023 act and where we are now, and on its implications for environmental standards?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Mark Ruskell
In the conversations that Zero Waste Scotland has had with particular sectors and businesses at a particular scale, what has the feedback been? Are there any concerns about unintended consequences or other issues?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Mark Ruskell
My only point is that the committee has not had adequate notice of or time to consider the instrument. I do not object to what is proposed, but I am concerned about the 28-day rule continually being broken. I seek your guidance, convener, as to what we can do to urge Governments to ensure that the committee is treated with respect and that we have enough time to consider anything that comes before us.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Mark Ruskell
I come back to natural capital finance. There is quite a debate about how those markets can be regulated in a way that builds in the right values and ensures that they have integrity. I am interested to hear your thoughts on that. I want you to comment specifically on the finance pilot and the memorandum of understanding that has been signed on that. The headline figure is that there is £2 billion-worth of funding. Will additional public finance come in on the back of that £2 billion? What is the mix of private and public funding? In addition, it would be useful to get your general thoughts on natural capital finance.
