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 2695 contributions
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Mark Ruskell
Do you want a pilot to be introduced in an area where journey times are being speeded up through bus priority measures? Does it make sense to bring all these interventions together? I think that that was your earlier point.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Mark Ruskell
Do David or Duncan have thoughts on the pilot? Do you welcome it? Do you want it in your area, or should it go somewhere else? How should the pilot be run?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Mark Ruskell
Paul, what are your thoughts on flat bus fares and on anything that we can learn from England, where they have been introduced?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Mark Ruskell
Duncan Cameron and David Frenz, your companies offer services in England as well as Scotland. Are there any differences between England and Scotland in terms of antisocial behaviour?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Mark Ruskell
However, England does not have a concessionary travel scheme for under-22s.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Mark Ruskell
I am sorry, Joanne, I do not mean to interrupt, but I go back to my very specific question, which related to concerns that the unions have. Will the changes result in fewer staff being available at stations or stations being unstaffed for longer periods? That is the issue that unions, disability groups and others are concerned about—it is the staffing at stations. I am well aware of some of the reasons for the business model changes with regard to ticket sales, but it would be great if you could address that point.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Mark Ruskell
What do you think is the underlying concern from trade union groups? We have heard evidence of concerns that there could be female staff, in particular, working alone at stations, and there is obviously a background concern about antisocial behaviour and what happens if you have a more dispersed workforce at stations. How are you addressing those concerns, and how are you addressing some of the concerns from disability access groups that an automated help point does not suit everybody’s needs? Indeed, it is difficult to access—or even to find, if you have a disability such as sight loss or other issues.
It feels as if this is an unresolved issue. I have heard you making the business case on several occasions in public and private meetings that we have had, but there are still these unresolved issues and concerns. How are you taking those on and resolving them?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Mark Ruskell
Okay. Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Mark Ruskell
I would like to ask you about the streams of funding that are available not just for bus priority measures but for investment in what I guess you could call community bus services and facilities, particularly in rural areas. We had the bus partnership fund; it was paused, and has now gone. There is now a new bus infrastructure fund, which wraps in not just what that bus partnership fund did but the community bus fund, too. However, it is only about £10 million. Do you think that that is adequate, and how do you think that that spend should be prioritised?
Paul, you are nodding the strongest. Do you want to come in first?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Mark Ruskell
Turning to Sarah Boyd, Duncan Cameron and David Frenz, I am interested to hear from the operators of particular projects. You have already talked about congestion and the need for priority infrastructure. Are there particular projects that you feel that these funds will—or will not—deliver?