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 1350 contributions
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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Emma Harper
Good morning to youse all. Crofts might be abandoned or just left, and then people might say that that was for rewilding. The whole purpose of crofting is about communities—getting people into rural areas, tackling depopulation and having community benefit. Is consideration for the environment not about supporting communities as well?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Emma Harper
I have a quick question about grazings committees first. When do grazings committees meet? Are they required to meet every six months or whatever over the three-year period?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Emma Harper
Thank you. That is helpful.
Crofting law is complex. Section 26 of the bill, on “Rectification of the Crofting Register”, would allow the keeper to correct inaccuracies, with notice and consultation. In that regard, how can the keeper and the Crofting Commission ensure that, post registration, things such as changes—rectification is the word that is used—to boundaries do not cause legal uncertainty for new owners, lenders or other interested parties, particularly if previously excluded land is later added to a croft?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Emma Harper
Referring back to what I said about correcting inaccuracies with notice and consultation, and thinking about the register of crofts, the crofting register and the land register, how does it all work together? Do some bits need to be sorted, or do changes need to be proposed, essentially to make the whole registration process clear and straightforward for everybody, so that we can simplify it a bit?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Emma Harper
We now have the “Register of Crofts” in the bill. Can somebody clarify for me—
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Emma Harper
What is it with the register of crofts versus the crofting register? Why do we have them both?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Emma Harper
Are they different depending on whether they are in Shetland or Orkney, or on one of the other islands?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Emma Harper
By “the two registers” you mean the land register and the crofting register.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
ADHD and ASD Pathways and Support
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Emma Harper
Do the referrals normally come from teachers or GP practices?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
ADHD and ASD Pathways and Support
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Emma Harper
Does more work need to be done to support those perceived gatekeepers to raise awareness of ADHD and autism and how people can have both? I like the language that Patrick Harvie used in the previous session, when he talked about the need for more neuro-affirming language, so that people who are working in the public sector have more knowledge and are more able to listen and learn. In Dumfries and Galloway, a group called Sleeping Giants did a consultation called think differently, which surveyed 185 people to help them get support, for instance. It was really well written and well done. It has now made recommendations, some of which are about awareness raising for the wider public sector.
