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 2295 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Bob Doris
That is helpful. Over the past few evidence sessions, I have tried to paint the role of the proposed new commissioner as being more proactive, their resources permitting. Of course, Mr Carlow, that could help to drive up standards for land management plans, because there could be breaches. Although those breaches may not be wilful, it could be that expertise is still being acquired around the development and implementation of land management plans, including in community engagement. If resources permit, should sample inspections take place on a thematic basis, not with a view to identifying and prosecuting breaches but with a view to identifying weaknesses in delivery, which would help to drive up standards? Would it be helpful for the commissioner to have a proactive power to do more thematic work?
11:45Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Bob Doris
I will resist asking further questions about that, Mr Clark, because of the time pressure. Mr Carlow, do you have any reflections on the points that I made?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Bob Doris
I will ask the same question that I asked the previous witnesses on the affordability of a good-quality land management plan. When Mr Carlow gave the forestry example, he helpfully said, “That is just good management”—that is what I have written down—in relation to engagement with communities, good stewardship of the land and the relationship in that regard. A lot of the things that we are talking about are things that a good landowner would be doing anyway, but they would be drawn together in one place, so I genuinely cannot comprehend how it would cost many tens of thousands of pounds to do something that, as nearly all the witnesses have said, good-quality landowners would be doing anyway. Something does not quite compute. Mr Carlow, what are your views on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Bob Doris
Thank you. I will go to Tara Wight first with this question, as it is easy to forget that we have a witness online, and I want to make sure that we do not do that.
My question is about identifying breaches in land management plans. You will know that the Land Commission suggested that the new land and communities commissioner should be able to instigate an investigation into potential breaches of community engagement obligations within the drawing up of a land management plan. It also suggested that there should be a more general power for the new commissioner to act where they think that there are reasonable grounds to suspect a breach of any kind with a land management plan, irrespective of whether there has been a complaint. What are your views on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Bob Doris
That might be the general view of all witnesses. We will hear from one more witness on that, and then I will ask a follow-up question. Max, do you concur with what Tara said?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Bob Doris
This is my final comment. You are almost suggesting a risk-based approach to that proactive work. That would flag up a potential risk if some landowners do not have track record of complying with best practice already. Do you want to say any more about what that risk-based, proactive work of the commissioner might look like? You mentioned some things already. Is there anything else that we could consider?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Bob Doris
That is very interesting. I am tempted to ask more questions, but I will not, because of time.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
That is helpful. I might come back to the anonymity question raised by Megan MacInnes in a moment, but first I will ask about the land and communities commissioner’s proactive role to investigate potential breaches.
I will stick with you, Mr Kirkwood. I have suggested to witnesses before that I would quite like the land and communities commissioner to be able to pick a random sample of land management plans and do a bit of digging, not to catch landowners out, but to see whether they are compliant. Mr Overton was talking about the Land Commission having a forum about what a good land management plan looks like and how landowners can be supported to produce them. If we are going to drive up standards and ensure best practice, the land and communities commissioner has to have more of a proactive role.
Mr Kirkwood, what are your views on the land and communities commissioner having proactive powers to investigate potential breaches? More generally, what are your thoughts on its ability to dip its toe in the water to find out what is happening out there across Scotland with land management plans?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
The convener will be quite terse with me if I do not stay focused on the questions. I will bring in Mr Howard.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Bob Doris
We have heard from some witnesses in private, because they were concerned about airing their views in public. I get that every landowner, tenant and community group is different, but we have heard some of that concern, and it is important to put that on the record.
Not everyone has had an opportunity to speak, but I will put in my final question and we can maybe mop this up. Megan MacInnes spoke about anonymity for those who complain because of the potential risk that we have heard about. Witnesses should feel free to comment on the first two questions, but perhaps Laura Hamlet has a view on anonymity.
