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 2050 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
We have had to introduce the provision as it is because of what must be taken into consideration in the public interest, our direction of how that is used and why the measure is proportionate in respect of what we are talking about.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
We will, of course, listen to all the views that have been expressed to the committee. It all comes back to the idea that you can meet the Government’s objectives only if you are doing things at scale, which is not necessarily helpful. I have visited various estates and seen incredible work being done, but I see the same when I visit smaller landholdings. I do not think that it necessarily needs to be one or the other in order to meet the Government’s objectives—indeed, I do not think that that is the case elsewhere, when we consider international comparisons.
We recognise the role and importance of private investment, because the public purse will never have enough funding to enable all the activity that we need to see to meet our climate and nature targets. However, we must try to tackle the issues that we have with the scale and concentration of land ownership, and the impact that that has on communities. Via the measures in the bill, we have proposed a way to try to address the issues, and that is what is important.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
I will bring in Andy Proudfoot.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
Quite a few people who have given evidence to the committee have raised that issue. I think that I touched on this in a previous response, but, ultimately, the role is proposed in this way to provide for separation between the commission’s regulatory and advisory roles.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
Yes, I am happy to do that, and I will bring in Andy Proudfoot to provide more detail. I believe that some of the costs and ranges in the policy document are based on the detailed work that some public agencies undertake in relation to land management plans and their costs.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
I think that Andy wants to come in.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
There are a number of points within that. Essentially, it is all of that. Looking at the initial aims of the bill, the first is ultimately about transparency around land ownership and management, involving communities in the decisions that are taken in relation to land—that is where the community engagement provisions around land management plans come in—and encouraging dialogue between landowners and communities. It is about ensuring that there are other opportunities for communities to take on ownership of more land across Scotland, as well as increasing the land supply and encouraging wider diversification of ownership.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
I am confident about the measures that we are bringing forward. I know that a number of views were expressed when the committee took evidence. Again, we are considering all of that but, ultimately, this is about creating more fairness in the processes and provisions that we are introducing.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
I completely appreciate and agree with your point, but we need to make sure that the proposals that we introduce are evidenced, so that they stand up to scrutiny. I am not averse to considering that point, but we would have to give greater thought to how that might work and what the evidence base for that might be. I understand the concerns that were raised in evidence in relation to that.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Mairi Gougeon
I have listened to the evidence on that. First of all, the land management plans and the local place plans have different aims, so they have different purposes. My concern is that local place plans are not universal. I think that a review is due to be undertaken this year—I am sure that Andy Proudfoot will correct me if I am wrong—in relation to how local place plans are operating. It makes sense for that to be considered through the land management process, but I would be reluctant to introduce that into the primary legislation. Given the different nature of the plans, perhaps that is more appropriately addressed in secondary legislation or guidance. However, it makes sense for there to be some consideration of that because local place plans are important in identifying the local communities’ needs.
