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.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
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.
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.
There are two types of keyword search:
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.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
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:
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.
Displaying 1932 contributions
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Rachael Hamilton
Is there the potential to have a tolerance if what is proposed is impractical according to the feedback, which we obviously have to wait for?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 16 March 2022
Rachael Hamilton
I was going to ask the same question.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 16 March 2022
Rachael Hamilton
I just want clarification from the minister about why the Scottish Government has chosen to go along with the same policy as the UK. I believe that there is an issue with the supply of some of the material for organic pullets. Every time we consider legislation, there is never an explanation why the Scottish Government has chosen not to take a different route from the rest of the UK.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Rachael Hamilton
Why have stakeholders said that the BRIA did not follow the correct process with regard to the impact that the closure was going to have on fishermen?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Rachael Hamilton
Has any assessment been made of the future financial benefit that fishermen will get for forgoing their income for 11 weeks?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Rachael Hamilton
Will you accept as true the accusation that you put the Bute house agreement before fishermen and their livelihoods and families?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Rachael Hamilton
I thank committee members for setting out their stall. Of course, we want to protect cod stocks; so, too, do fishermen—they call themselves conservationists.
I am disappointed that some colleagues are not considering the issue seriously enough. They are just getting behind the Government. It is a spineless approach by SNP back benchers. In particular, I am afraid that I have to call out my colleague Jenni Minto, as she called for compensation for her constituents in January over this. I am sorry, Jenni, that your Government does not support you or your constituents on that.
It is imperative that the cabinet secretary takes our concerns at face value. I will press my motion. The matter is urgent and the Government must quickly come back to the table with new proposals.
I know that my motion to annul will fail today because I do not have the numbers behind me. The odds are stacked against me because SNP back benchers will support the Government’s position, which is regrettable. However, I urge the Government to urgently carry out a review and come back with new proposals.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Rachael Hamilton
That means that the best available scientific evidence is deficient—you have made a decision without the Scottish Government having resourced evidence-based studies on which to base decisions. There has been a failure of the Scottish Government to provide evidence.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Rachael Hamilton
Cabinet secretary, is this fair, compared to the support that was given through furlough when businesses were shut down due to Covid regulations? Your Government gave such short notice to stakeholders that exemptions would be removed and, therefore, that people’s livelihoods would be removed. As one person described it, it would be three months without income, but it is not just that, is it cabinet secretary? It is about the processors, the hauliers and the skippers’ families. Other than the pleas from the stakeholders, I cannot see anything in the information that shows that the Scottish Government has taken account of the economic impact of removing the exemptions.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Rachael Hamilton
I am sorry, cabinet secretary, but displacement can cause safety issues and some fishermen cannot move, so their livelihoods are being completely cut off. We have heard evidence from individuals who have had to take loans or dip into savings because they are still having to pay for insurance and other costs that are associated with fishing. If your salary were removed for three months, I am sure that you would feel it.