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 3077 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services
Meeting date: 7 January 2025
Mark Ruskell
Is that done independently and is it independently verified?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services
Meeting date: 7 January 2025
Mark Ruskell
Right.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Great British Energy Bill
Meeting date: 7 January 2025
Mark Ruskell
Do you anticipate our legislation needing any changes in the short-to-medium term to make sure that there is not a situation where there is a more attractive investment proposition in England because of new powers of the Crown Estate? Crown Estate Scotland would then be playing catch-up due to the borrowing powers limitations that currently exist. I am just trying to understand whether there are risks there, and, if there are, how quickly those could be mitigated.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Great British Energy Bill
Meeting date: 7 January 2025
Mark Ruskell
You would prefer a level playing field.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services
Meeting date: 7 January 2025
Mark Ruskell
I have a follow-up question. I think that you have allowed a 3 per cent contingency for the four large vessels that are currently being constructed in Turkey. It was good that you put on the record some of the pressures and strains that exist at the moment. Is that 3 per cent figure adequate, or do you expect that it might need to go up? Will you need to use it?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services
Meeting date: 7 January 2025
Mark Ruskell
I will briefly go back to the question about liquefied natural gas propulsion. There has been a lot of discussion in the press about whether the carbon emissions are higher or lower, and there was a discussion earlier about the weight of the vessel and everything else. I take it that neither the Glen Sannox nor the Glen Rosa will be part of the UK emissions trading scheme, because of their weight. Is that right?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services
Meeting date: 7 January 2025
Mark Ruskell
That would avoid all the conjecture about whether carbon emissions are higher or lower.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services
Meeting date: 7 January 2025
Mark Ruskell
Surely that is the point of the emissions trading scheme—you have a verifiable and monitored system in which there is agreement on what the emissions are, and you take into account not just what you are burning on the ship but where it comes from. If it comes from Saudi or wherever, you might have a higher carbon footprint.
Meeting of the Commission
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
That is good. Vicky, can you say how that change relates to the staff survey work? Is there a package of other measures around that work that fits with the 35-hour working week? What impact will it have on the organisation?
Meeting of the Commission
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
That is a useful answer. As you say, it is quite a marginal change—15 minutes a day. My team in Parliament operates on a 30-hour week, and that does put a lot of pressure on productivity.
I just wonder how that change and a package of other measures might impact on your recruitment and retention. You are projecting a 5 per cent vacancy rate. Is it difficult for you to pin down what the vacancy rate will be? Are you working towards bringing that down and towards an outcome where you are more competitive? It might be difficult to match the salaries in the private sector, but what is the attractive package that you can offer?
For somebody who has caring responsibilities, 35 hours a week is better than 37 but it is not 32; it does not take half an hour off of each day to enable them to pick up the kids or go and see an elderly parent.
I am thinking about people who are making career choices to go with you rather than the private sector and about bringing down the vacancy rate. Is the reduction competitive alongside other actions that you are taking? How does it impact your budget? That is a bit of a holistic question.
11:30