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 2195 contributions
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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
Absolutely. Rhoda Grant touched on that issue, too. We have to ensure that we have in place the basic infrastructure, transport connectivity, housing in rural areas and so on. You are absolutely right. Aside from the fish farmers themselves, this is an industry that pretty much touches every part of Scotland, whether rural or not. I recognise the importance of your point.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
You will be aware that that work is being led by my colleague Màiri McAllan, the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition. I have not seen the consultation responses yet, so I cannot go into any detail about what they contain, but I know that the salmon sector and the fishing industry have expressed concern about the process. We have had the consultation, and we now need to analyse the responses.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
Those are definitely issues that we want to take forward as we look at and revise the regulatory regime. I am more than happy to take that on board and to consider it as part of that work.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
That is the third time that you have asked me the question, convener. I cannot give a definitive response. Of course, we want to do what we can to drive down the rate from the current figure. It is in our interest and the industry’s interest to do so.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
SEPA is ultimately answerable to the Scottish Government. We have a positive working relationship, and the work that we take forward through the Scottish Aquaculture Council is really important in that. It brings together all the key stakeholders: industry, environmental organisations and the key regulatory bodies that are involved in aquaculture in Scotland. I am really trying to facilitate those wider discussions. Last week, as I said, we had a meeting at which we went into detail about the science report that we received on some of those recommendations. We have positive relationships there.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
Again, it is not possible for me to give a definitive figure for that. We want the level to be as low as possible. With some of the figures that you talked about, it is hard to say, because there are things that we cannot predict. I talked about what could have been a specific event last year; we do not know whether that could become a trend that would become more of an issue.
I want to correct your point that it is not mandatory to report mortality. The industry must record it—that is a mandatory requirement. We talked about the inspection regime, how that information is collected and the role of the fish health inspectorate. I want to be clear on that point.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
It can vary between 15 per cent and 25 per cent.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
Yes—absolutely. In previous responses this morning, I have touched on the work that has been undertaken through the farmed fish health framework. You are right: we are five years on from its establishment. There was a refresh in 2020. The group is chaired by the chief vet, and it brings together the producers, regulators and innovation centres. Fish vets are part of that body, as well. At the time of the refresh, the group looked to refocus its priorities, and the key priorities to focus on were climate change, looking at treatments, and trying to address mortalities throughout that time.
I mentioned in a previous response that one of the key achievements within that time has been the standardised reporting of mortalities. The group has worked on and produced the 10 overarching categories into which they would fall. Work has been done in partnership with SAIC, as well—SAIC has been leading on that—in looking at some of the issues that we know that the industry faces. For example, that work has looked at harmful algal blooms. They are also looking at potentially trying to remove the barriers to vaccination.
A lot of work has been undertaken, and a lot of work is on-going. If the committee would like a fuller update on the work that has been undertaken through the farmed fish health framework, I would be happy to provide that.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
We want to see as few as possible. We have the minimum thresholds and, as I said, we will keep them under review. Industry has to report the numbers—there is a mandatory requirement for it to do so, and the numbers are posted a week in arrears. As I highlighted in my previous response, the vast majority are already below our minimum thresholds. The work that we are taking forward through the sea lice framework will be critical. We really need that to be embedded before we consider whether it is appropriate to continue to lower the thresholds.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Salmon Farming
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Mairi Gougeon
As I said, there is a mandatory requirement for industry to publish the figures. The fish health inspectorate has a role to play in that. Its role is to audit that information, and it also undertakes inspections. We therefore inspect, audit and check.
