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 1920 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Monica Lennon
Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Monica Lennon
Good morning to the panel. I want to pick up on transport. You will know that, in its inquiry report, the committee supported stronger regional transport partnership models to get a more joined-up and strategic approach to public transport and active travel at the regional level. The panel has talked a lot about alignment. That has been good to hear. What additional powers or resources do regional transport partnerships need to plan and deliver effective regional, public and active transport systems?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Monica Lennon
Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Monica Lennon
Do not all speak at once.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Monica Lennon
Electric vehicles have been mentioned a couple of times. We know that the Government’s target is to reduce car kilometres by 20 per cent by the end of this decade. Last week, we had a debate in Parliament about buses and the role of bus services. We have seen a big reduction in passenger journeys and the number of bus services over quite a long period of time. How confident are you that bus partnerships and the bus partnership fund will increase bus patronage across Scotland’s regions? How might those arrangements be improved?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Monica Lennon
Sticking with funding, I know that there is also the community bus fund, which the Scottish Government has funded to the tune of £1 million. However, that is for 32 local authorities. What is being achieved with that sum of money, and if more than £1 million is available, what can be done with it? It just does not seem like a lot.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Monica Lennon
You have just reminded me that this is #lovemybus week. I believe that Mark Ruskell is promoting an event in Parliament this week. That is a reminder to colleagues.
I know that the deputy convener has questions on this topic, too. Carrots and sticks and behaviour change have been mentioned a couple of times. We have a big opportunity in that more people can access the national concessionary travel scheme—the free bus pass—including 22-year-olds and under, but we are also hearing about emerging bus deserts in some areas in Scotland where there are no or very few bus services.
To what extent is there a renewed appetite among people to use buses? Is there an appetite in our councils to get stuck in and run or operate municipal bus companies? We know about the powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 and the levers, but local government sometimes says to us that it does not have the funds or the capacity. Is there a willingness to do that, or is that just going to be too difficult?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Monica Lennon
For clarification, is the £1 million community bus fund shared equally among the 32 local authorities, or do you all get a different share?
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 18 May 2023
Monica Lennon
At the food for thought parliamentary reception last week, young people made it really clear that hunger does not end at the primary school gate, so the pilot scheme for secondary schools is important. What steps will the Government take to ensure that young people are involved in co-designing the pilot scheme and in the on-going roll-out of universal free school meals?
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 18 May 2023
Monica Lennon
Carers who are in the gallery, their colleagues and the people they care for deserve much better than that. The fund was time limited, but the crisis in social care is getting worse by the day. As was highlighted in the Sunday Post, carers are urging the Government to reinstate the fund because they cannot afford to get sick. Removing that financial safety net now without an alternative solution will accelerate the collapse of social care and push the NHS further into crisis.
To her credit, Jeane Freeman listened to the workers and worked with Scottish Labour to introduce the fund in the first place. Will Humza Yousaf’s Government listen, meet the workers and our unions, and do the right thing?
