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 1601 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2024
Ben Macpherson
Professor Ulph made important points about how mitigation and dealing with the consequences of climate change will be a big concern for all of us in the period ahead, as will trying to play our part in reducing emissions. However, the bill is about reduction. Is it an advantage that, although the changes that it proposes to the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 and the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019 will induce and require longer-term planning, which I think we are all supportive of, those changes—removing the interim target and moving to multiyear budgeting—will also give greater agility?
The technology is moving so fast. Heat pumps were mentioned earlier. The improvements in those in recent years are remarkable, and a biomethane gas network will potentially also be available. That is just in relation to heating homes. Should we welcome the agility that the bill brings as something that will help us as the technology moves forward?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2024
Ben Macpherson
On that point, Dr Nurse, the evidence from the CCC was significant in provoking the Scottish Government to make the changes that the bill proposes. Did your answer to my colleague mean that you are content with how the bill has been drafted and with its proposals? I take your points about the importance of budget scrutiny thereafter and the data that must be provided and considered.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2024
Ben Macpherson
Is there time?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2024
Ben Macpherson
There has been a lot of crossover discussion on the first budget and the plan, so, for clarity and completeness, Dr Nurse, it might be helpful if you could follow up in writing on section 3(2) and say what your views are on that section. I do not think that the recent discussion was clear about the agreed position. I might be alone in thinking that, but I might well not be.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2024
Ben Macpherson
That is a fair point. I should also have referred to the fact that the market is developing and that there are more producers. Accessibility for consumers is growing, and the cost to consumers is reducing. I am conscious that what is available to people will move quite quickly in the next decade, and that we need agility.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2024
Ben Macpherson
Convener, can I—
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2024
Ben Macpherson
We want to hear your view. The convener asked specifically about section 3(2). I am looking for a clear position on that and how it relates to the timing, the sequence of events, or both. With all due respect to all involved, I just do not think that that was made clear when the discussion took place.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2024
Ben Macpherson
That is helpful. Thanks for your time.
Criminal Justice Committee
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
Meeting date: 4 September 2024
Ben Macpherson
As the MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, where Breadalbane Street is, I want to express my gratitude to and admiration for everyone who responded on that night. Edinburgh Northern and Leith is the most densely populated part of Scotland. There are important points to take from that whole scenario about making sure that there is adequate coverage in urban Scotland. My understanding is that the reason why action on Breadalbane Street was taken so swiftly was because the team at McDonald Road, which is not far away, was in McDonald Road that evening, and that included the height appliance and the secondary vehicle.
To expand on some of the things that were said earlier this year and last year, do you want to say a bit more about the importance of height appliances and secondary vehicles being on scene as soon as possible? Although we want our crews to do more and we want to expand their roles day to day, and although the number of fires has decreased because of smoke alarms and other safety features in homes, it strikes me that the most important consideration is to make sure that there is capacity for the times when the risk goes up. We need to ensure that the geographical spread of height appliances and secondary vehicles is not constrained in a way that increases the risk in a manner that means that crews could not get to a situation such as that in Breadalbane Street quickly enough.
For example, I have heard that, when the Ayr station hotel was being attended to, the crew from McDonald Road in my constituency was in Glasgow. I am concerned about what would have happened if the Breadalbane Street fire had happened that night. It is a hard balance, but is there more that you want to say about that?
Criminal Justice Committee
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
Meeting date: 4 September 2024
Ben Macpherson
I want briefly to make sure that I was absolutely clear in that first question. I appreciate that there is a need to maintain and, in certain circumstances, to improve coverage in more rural and remote areas and in areas where there are population-decrease challenges. However, the east of the country, where the population is growing significantly and, as I said, 85 per cent of Scotland’s projected population growth will be in the Lothians, will require an increase in capacity in certain areas.
