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
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Edward Mountain
I have a few questions, if I may ask them without hogging the limelight at the end. Dag Hole, what happens when there is disruption and a ferry breaks down? Do those four companies have the ability to respond to that by moving ships around to fill in for breakdowns?
10:45Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Edward Mountain
That is very illuminating. If there is anything that either of you think that we have missed, I am happy to give you a couple of minutes to add anything before we bring this part of the meeting to a close. I do not normally do that but I think that it is important to hear your contributions today.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Edward Mountain
That is interesting. Harald Høyem, do you want to say anything?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Edward Mountain
Welcome back, everyone. I want to clarify something that I should have addressed when we were considering the statutory instrument earlier. We will have to report the outcome of the instrument in due course and I look for the committee to delegate authority to me, as convener, to finalise the report for publication. Are you all happy with that?
Members indicated agreement.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Edward Mountain
The figure is 2,053 in this financial year, which is up from 1,100 the year before, so it is not insubstantial.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Edward Mountain
I will mention the reasons that jump out at me and which I cannot understand. The figure for “force majeure”, which is within your control, has doubled since last year. The figure for “mechanical problems” has gone up from 498 to 1,678, which seems a huge leap. I also do not understand “Scot Government approved cancellations”, which have leapt from 485 to 1,551.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Edward Mountain
I understand that. Roughly 1,600 cancellations were down to mechanical problems, and there were about 1,500 Scottish Government approved ones. I am confused by that. I think that the figures need a bit more clarification because, on the face of it, they are quite concerning, given the way that they have been produced. You are saying that mechanical problems and force majeure events, which effectively account for 3,600-odd cancellations, are within your control. We then have 1,500 cancellations, which is just under half of that, that were Government approved. What does the Government approve?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Edward Mountain
Robbie Drummond, thank you for not correcting me. Of course I made a mistake when I referred to Ardrossan to Mull; I meant Ardrossan to Arran. At 10 to 1 this morning we had evidence submitted to us from Mull, which probably meant that Mull was at the forefront of my mind from the early hours, so I apologise for that and thank you for not correcting me. I have corrected myself before anyone else does.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Edward Mountain
Sorry, I am slightly confused. Why do you employ them in Guernsey and not employ them at home? Are there tax advantages from doing that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2023
Edward Mountain
That is something for the committee to ponder on—whether it is appropriate for a Government-awarded contract to employ an organisation that dodges paying national insurance. I make no comment. The committee will have to decide on that.
Jackie Dunbar, I think that you have a question and then I will open it up to anyone else who wants any follow-ups.