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 1198 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Liam Kerr
My final question at this stage is on something that Jeremy Allen just brought up. You mention the capacity market in the context of storage. As I understand it, the UK Government proposes changes to the capacity market that would include or better incentivise what we might call flexible technologies to better allow them to compete in capacity market auctions. The committee has heard that small and medium-sized enterprises that produce batteries might find it difficult to enter that market. Will the proposed changes to the capacity market assist in that entry, and if so, how?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Liam Kerr
I am grateful.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Liam Kerr
Andrew Bowie, you talked about contracts for difference and their importance in stimulating and moving forward with renewables. The UK Government has recently launched a consultation on the contract for difference regime and my understanding is that there is a feeling in Government that it would be better to move from a straight consideration of bid price to incorporating other factors—such as supply chains, filling skills gaps and innovation—when bids are made for such contracts.
What are the benefits of a shift to such a regime and what are the risks?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Liam Kerr
I appreciate that you will not talk about an on-going consultation, but the Government must have horizon scanned and thought about the possible outcomes of changing regimes. You have talked about some of the benefits that might arise from changing regimes in relation to skills and the supply chain, for example, but could there not be a counterview that, by changing the regime, you would make projects more expensive and thus reduce the incentive for renewables?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Liam Kerr
Yes. Thank you, convener.
I will be very brief. I thought that the deputy convener’s points with regard to concerns about grid connections were well made, and I want to follow up on—or clarify—a point in relation to that. On grid connections and the ability to get into the grid, you answered the deputy convener by referring to a review by Nick Winser. It has been suggested to the committee that the larger generation companies could, in theory, make a speculative application for grid capacity and then almost bank that connection. Do you recognise that as being possible or, indeed, as happening? In any event, what will the UK Government do to ensure that SMEs or the more innovative companies looking for such connections can definitely get access?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Liam Kerr
Yes. If we are finished in the substantive session, can I go back to a couple of points that you made back at the start and put a direct question? In your view, given what you have recommended and what you have looked at, do local authorities have sufficient funding to effectively monitor air quality?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Liam Kerr
I am very grateful. I have no further questions.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Liam Kerr
Andrew Taylor, your name was mentioned. Do you want to come in?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Liam Kerr
I have just one brief question. I would like to go back to CAFS2. One of the things that we heard about in the earlier session was the linkages between CAFS2 and other policy documents, reports and suggestions for improvement. What we heard—we were also told this by stakeholders last week—is that, although there are good linkages with things such as NPF4, the linkages with, for example, Transport Scotland policies might not be quite so robust. The question that is begged is how the Scottish Government will ensure that the policies and actions in CAFS2 are aligned with other policies and strategies, such as the climate change plans and those of Transport Scotland?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Liam Kerr
You made some recommendations on cleaner air for Scotland 2. When I asked about it last week, various stakeholders said that, although cleaner air for Scotland 2 made some good links to things such as national planning framework 4, the linkage was not quite so precise with some other areas, such as Transport Scotland strategies. What impact might that lack of linkage in some areas have on our ability to deliver the continuous improvement that you have been asked about? Does that need to be looked at again?
