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 2146 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Historical Adoption Practices
Meeting date: 22 March 2023
Monica Lennon
A veil of silence has been lifted today, so I add my voice to those thanking the First Minister for making an apology on behalf of the Scottish Government and indeed on behalf of Scotland. This is a day of mixed emotions. Some people have been name checked already but, as I look round the public gallery, I see that Marion and Jeannot are here, and that Evelyn Robinson has travelled from Australia with her son, who was born in this city in 1970 and was taken from his mother. It is a difficult day for other adult adoptees. I know that Esther, Fiona and Marjorie are here, and many more. There will be people who do not even realise that they, too, have been affected. There are so many survivors.
There have been many good questions already but I want to ask the First Minister whether she agrees that, after today, not just as a Government but as a Parliament, we should continue to work together on the issue to educate ourselves, because it was prejudice and complacency, along with a lack of compassion, that made this happen.
This week, we are celebrating single-parent families in Scotland. When I was speaking to some media representatives today, I said that this happened because women did not have a wedding ring on their finger. We cannot be complacent. There are people who will ask why we are not talking about the 1980s and later dates. We heard earlier today from Lisa about her experience, which happened in 1982, the year after I was born. What can we do to continue to educate the people of Scotland about the issue? There has been a call to record some of this history in the Glasgow Women’s Library. What else can we do to make sure that there is no complacency and that never again can something like this happen in Scotland?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Monica Lennon
I will come to Tom Quinn next and ask again about specific targets for marine, solar and hydro. I do not know whether you want to answer across the board or just pick out one of those.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Monica Lennon
I am watching the clock, because the convener caught my eye. We are just about to run out of time.
I have a quick final question. You might not know a lot about this. North Ayrshire Council has told us that it takes a community wealth building approach, and we have heard about its work on solar energy. The Scottish Government has committed to introducing a community wealth building bill. Do you see that having an enabling role? Are there any opportunities there for community energy and local energy?
12:00Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Monica Lennon
That is great. Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Monica Lennon
I want to return to the draft energy strategy, which I note does not have specific ambitions for marine or solar deployment, although it does recognise the potential role for hydro at small scale, involving local communities, and at a larger scale. Can the panel explain whether it is important to have specific targets? If it is, what should they be? I will start with Emily Rice, because I think that you said that solar is a bit of a footnote in the strategy. I am keen for you to elaborate on that and on the question about targets and how important they are.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Monica Lennon
Before I move on to the rest of the panel, what would a realistic ambition or set of targets for solar in the strategy look like? What would satisfy you?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Monica Lennon
We have seen examples of that on some of our visits to Aberdeen, where we saw hydrogen bin lorries.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Monica Lennon
That is okay. A lot of what I wanted to ask about has been addressed in the answers that we have had so far.
I want to focus on community energy. This question is for Mark Hull. We know that the Scottish Government aims to more than double the amount of community-owned energy and locally owned energy to 2GW by 2030. You have already said what some of the key challenges are and have mentioned the current electricity network. Is there anything else that you want to say about the key challenges and in what way the sector is inhibited by the current electricity network?
My other question—I might aim this at you as well, Mark—is about shared ownership. The Government wants to “encourage” shared ownership models. Is it enough for the Government simply to “encourage” such models or does there need to be a more formal mechanism to implement that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Monica Lennon
Stuart Haszeldine, do you have anything to add?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Monica Lennon
The technologies that we have just discussed receive less attention in the draft energy strategy. Can any or all of them play a significant role in the Scottish electricity system? Today we have heard a little bit about the important role that the planning system can play and local government more widely. Our committee just had a big inquiry into the role of local government in net zero and we had a committee debate in the chamber last week—I am sure that you were all listening to that. Do you have a view on how best local authorities can support our ambitions? Skills and planning have been mentioned. Do you want to add anything else to that? I will put that to Stuart Haszeldine first.
