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 1481 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Jackie Dunbar
If you ruled the world, how would you improve consistency? What do local authorities need to do to ensure that everyone reports in the same way?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Jackie Dunbar
I will be quick. I will ask the same questions that I asked the previous panel, because I am interested in hearing your take. How have councils responded to statutory emissions reporting requirements? Are there gaps in calculating and reporting on emissions? What role might COSLA and SOLACE have in addressing those?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Jackie Dunbar
Even better. Who would you suggest, Councillor Macgregor?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Jackie Dunbar
Stephen Smellie, do you agree with that way forward, given that, as you said earlier, the housing aspect will be huge?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Jackie Dunbar
I will hand back to you, convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Jackie Dunbar
Louise Marix Evans, in your submission, you say that finance directors need to understand what is needed before we can progress. Will you elaborate on what you mean by that?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Displaced People from Ukraine
Meeting date: 8 September 2022
Jackie Dunbar
The minister has spoken of boosting the national matching service where he can to speed up the transition from temporary accommodation. Will he elaborate on how matching can sustainably be accelerated?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
General Question Time
Meeting date: 8 September 2022
Jackie Dunbar
To ask the Scottish Government how the national planning framework 4 will help to address vacant, derelict and abandoned buildings and land, including across Aberdeen city. (S6O-01345)
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
General Question Time
Meeting date: 8 September 2022
Jackie Dunbar
Scotland has almost 11,000 hectares of vacant and derelict urban land. That means that almost a third of the Scottish population lives within 500m of a derelict site. These sites blight communities, harm wellbeing and limit opportunities, and they could be so much more. Will the minister outline what action is available to local authorities such as Aberdeen City Council to deal with these sites? Can he commit the Scottish Government to continuing to address them as a priority?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Institutional Racism in Sport
Meeting date: 7 September 2022
Jackie Dunbar
As deputy convener of the Parliament’s cross-party group on rugby development in Scotland, I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak in this important debate, and I thank my colleague and friend Kaukab Stewart for securing it.
It is regrettable that we have the need for the debate, but it is crucial that we, collectively as a Parliament, send a clear and loud message to all in the sports community that racism has no place in sport or in Scottish society and that racism should be addressed and called out at every level.
I begin by paying tribute to Majid Haq and Qasim Sheikh, who had the courage to raise their heads above the parapet and expose the level of racism that has been seen in Scottish cricket. I also thank everyone who was part of the report process. Their contribution, in a difficult situation, has been invaluable, and my thanks and admiration go to all involved. Their work will, I hope, be instrumental in bringing about a new era, not just in Scottish cricket but across sport in Scotland more generally.
The “Changing The Boundaries” report makes for grim reading. The investigations will be concluded in due course, and it is important that, as a Parliament, we allow that to happen in the proper way. The report makes several high-level recommendations and sub-recommendations for immediate action in order to address institutional racism in Scottish cricket. The recommendations are crucial and, although I welcome the commitment from the Scottish Government and sportscotland to implement them, I would welcome an update from the minister on the timescales for completion.
It has been highlighted that, presently, sportscotland has limited powers to address issues within governing bodies, which are often run by volunteers and are charged with vital responsibilities, such as safeguarding against discrimination, but I call on sportscotland to use its powers to their full extent. I support the calls for safeguards to be built into sports governance to allow for scrutiny and oversight of boards’ activity and to ensure that all discrimination is addressed.
Although the report on cricket raises significant issues, it is important that we also look to the future and consider the positive work that the sport community in Scotland has undertaken to tackle racism and discrimination. Indeed, as the managing director of Plan4Sport stated,
“whilst the governance and leadership practices of the organisation have been institutionally racist, the same should not be said for cricket in Scotland. There are many outstanding clubs and individuals delivering local programmes which truly engage with diverse communities.”
I welcome the Scottish Government’s funding and support for sportscotland’s equality, diversity and inclusion approach—sport for life. The approach provides meaningful internal action and leadership to Scotland’s sporting community to tackle racism and all other forms of discrimination.
Scottish Rugby has picked up the approach particularly well, and I congratulate it on winning the sports equality award for the work that it does across clubs to celebrate diversity and to cut out discrimination. I ask the minister for a commitment that such work will continue and that the Government will redouble its efforts to tackle racism.
In conclusion, as Martin Luther King Jnr said,
“I look to the day when people will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
17:49