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 5973 contributions
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Edward Mountain
Thanks very much. I am sure that Dominic Fry will take some of that half a million pounds to get rid of TLAs—or three-letter acronyms—so that Mr Stewart does not get upset. I totally agree with him: I, too, get lost with the amount of such acronyms that we have on this committee, and specifically in this area.
I thank the witnesses very much for their evidence this morning. That concludes our session in public, and we will now move into private session.
11:10 Meeting continued in public until 11:26.Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Edward Mountain
So, your salary is in the range that is higher than the First Minister’s salary.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Edward Mountain
It is.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Edward Mountain
If you can give me the range, that will be fine.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Edward Mountain
Douglas Lumsden, did you want to come in now?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Edward Mountain
Douglas Lumsden has some questions.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Edward Mountain
Sorry—my mistake. Bob Doris has the next set of questions.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Edward Mountain
Good morning, and welcome to the 16th meeting in 2025 of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee. Apologies have been received from Monica Lennon, and I welcome to the meeting Sarah Boyack, who is attending as her substitute.
Our first item of business is a decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take in private item 3, which is consideration of the evidence that we will hear from Zero Waste Scotland?
Members indicated agreement.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Edward Mountain
I believe that I must make a declaration before talking to the committee in any shape or form. I apologise that I was unable to attend the meeting earlier but I was convening another parliamentary committee.
I would like the committee to be aware that I was a surveyor before I became a parliamentarian, letting houses under the Housing (Scotland) Acts of 1988, 2001 and 2014. I am also a private landlord in my own right and have been since 1989. I let houses under long-term private residential tenancies—no short-term lets for me, Mr Greer—and I also let them under licence to employees.
Amendment 142 moved—[Edward Mountain]—and agreed to.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Edward Mountain
In the hope of getting a run, I will move amendment 143.
Amendment 143 moved—[Edward Mountain].