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 2272 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Bob Doris
It would be nice if you could get back to the committee with some numbers on that.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Bob Doris
So is it reasonable to say that the jury is still out in relation to the provisions of the 2019 act, rather than that it has not been successful? I do not want to paraphrase you, but we will have to consider the evidence that we have heard. Roughly speaking, is that your position?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Bob Doris
That is very helpful. David, do you want to add anything before I go to Mr Cameron?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Bob Doris
I am not asking about new rolling stock; other folk might do that. I should first point out that it is encouraging that there appears to be a strategy for retaining the skilled workforce and for a rolling programme of electrification. There will be other electrified lines right across Scotland, but my local line never seems to be in the mix, and it is unlikely to be in the mix. I keep telling commuters that it is an absolutely valued part of the Scottish rail network, but, until we see the rolling stock solutions come out, it is hard to say more about that and a decarbonised railway. Do you want to say anything more about the parts of the country where it is clear that, in the short or medium term, there will be no electrification?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Bob Doris
The deputy convener has raised a very important question. This is for Joanne Maguire to comment on, if she is able to. Earlier on I mentioned that it was clear that not all parts of Scotland’s rural network will be electrified but it must all be decarbonised. I also made the point that in my part of the world, if a line is not on the list for electrification, questions are asked about the long-term future for that line. I specifically mentioned the Maryhill line—Glasgow through to Anniesland. I have had repeated commitments that it is core and of value to ScotRail. There are also other technologies out there, including hydrogen fuel and battery electric.
I would like something on the record from ScotRail today to say that just because every part of the rail network is not electrified does not mean that it is not of equal value for passengers, including passengers in my constituency of Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Bob Doris
I will bring in Liam Sumpter in a moment. We do not know the extent of the issue with ScotRail, but you are going to tell me how you are going to fix it anyway. I am genuinely not trying to be sarcastic; I am just trying to understand the situation. Maybe you can continue with your answer that I interrupted—my apologies for that.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Bob Doris
Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Bob Doris
That data is helpful. I have been scribbling it down and I will look back at the Official Report of the meeting. On the 46 per cent of delays that related to an engineering or Network Rail matter, what improvement plan does Network Rail have in place? Obviously, there is extreme weather, for which you cannot be held to account, but it is about how quickly you get the network back up and running—that is what we are looking at there. From a Network Rail point of view, how does your improvement plan seek to proactively reduce delays?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Bob Doris
I do not drive, I do not cycle and I have a young family. I am heavily dependent on buses—First Glasgow buses, predominantly—so the three bus corridors that I mentioned have a profound impact on me and my family’s ability to get around. The Maryhill Road corridor is particularly important to us, but the Great Western Road and Dumbarton Road corridors are important, too. When you discuss those corridors with partners, what input into those discussions do the travelling public—as an MSP, I have a separate influence that I can bring to bear, but I am talking about members of the travelling public who might have a similar travelling profile to me—have?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Bob Doris
That is very helpful, and it brings me on nicely to Mr Cameron. The reason I have kept you waiting until now is that I have a significant constituency interest in some of this stuff.
I was having a look to see where we are with bus services improvement partnerships in my area. Of course, First Group and First Glasgow would say that there has always been a strategic relationship with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and local authorities, and that that was the case before the 2019 act came into place. Earlier, you mentioned the Glasgow city region bus partnership, which did not require BSIPs.
For fairly obvious constituency reasons, I am interested in the plans for strategic bus corridors and, in particular, those for Dumbarton Road, Great Western Road and Maryhill Road. Where are we with those? Did the development of those corridors not require any of the powers in the 2019 act? Could that happen in partnership anyway?
