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 4410 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 12 November 2025
Audrey Nicoll
I welcome to our meeting Stuart Stevens, chief officer of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service; Andy Watt, deputy chief officer; and Sarah O’Donnell, deputy chief officer for corporate services. You are all very welcome this morning, and I thank you for sending your detailed written submission.
I am conscious that we overran our previous evidence session, so apologies for that. There is a lot for us to get through. I anticipate that we will probably have to run over time again, with everybody’s agreement, so it will be nearer 1 o’clock before we conclude this session. I hope that that works for witnesses and members.
I remind members and our witnesses that this evidence-taking session is focused in the main on budget issues for this and the next financial year. The committee is planning further evidence sessions in the coming weeks on the wider fire service modernisation agenda and proposed station closures.
I begin by asking our witnesses an opening question to get things under way. I will come to Stuart Stevens first. Can you update us on whether you have found the funding provision for 2025-26 to have been sufficient? What are your organisation’s main asks for 2026-27? If you are unsuccessful in that respect, what will be the consequences?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 12 November 2025
Audrey Nicoll
I am sure that members will drill into that a bit more.
I have a follow-up question for John Logue, referring again to your detailed submission. One of the pressures that you reflect on in your submission relates to deaths requiring investigation, the number of which remains high. You said that there was
“a 22% increase in 2024-25 compared to pre-pandemic levels”.
That might be another issue that is, to a certain extent, not in the public eye. I am interested in hearing a bit more about the challenges faced by the Crown Office in its broader responsibility for the investigation of deaths.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 12 November 2025
Audrey Nicoll
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the 30th meeting in 2025 of the Criminal Justice Committee. We have received no apologies.
Our first item of business in public is continuation of our pre-budget scrutiny. We will hear from two panels of witnesses, and I intend to allow up to 60 minutes for each panel. I refer members to papers 2 and 3.
I welcome to the meeting: Malcolm Graham, chief executive of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service; John Logue, Crown Agent and chief executive of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service; and Yvette Greener, chief operating officer of COPFS. A warm welcome to you all. I thank you for your detailed written submissions.
As time is tight, we will move straight to questions. I will begin with broad opening questions to get us started. I will come first to John Logue and then to Malcolm Graham. Have you found your funding in 2025-26 to be sufficient? What are your organisation’s main asks for 2026-27? If those asks were to be unsuccessful, what would be the consequences?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 12 November 2025
Audrey Nicoll
Thank you. That was comprehensive and helpful.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 12 November 2025
Audrey Nicoll
I am aware that we are running over time. I am keen to get Fulton MacGregor in for a final question, if our witnesses are okay to stay a few moments longer.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 12 November 2025
Audrey Nicoll
Thank you for that. I bring in Fulton MacGregor.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 12 November 2025
Audrey Nicoll
I will come in with a final question, and then I will ask the same question that I asked previous witnesses about a written follow-up on climate change. First, you might have heard us discuss with previous witnesses the issues around cyber threat, which is mentioned in your submission. The implications for public sector organisations being targeted are obvious. I am interested in hearing a little more on what the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is doing to mitigate the threat.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 12 November 2025
Audrey Nicoll
Before we conclude, I will extend the same invitation to you that I extended to the previous witnesses with regard to what your organisation is doing to mitigate and reduce carbon emissions as we are looking to meet our climate change targets across Scotland. It will be more of an organisational response rather than an operational one, but we are keen to hear a bit about what the service is doing in that regard.
I thank you all for your attendance today. The session has been really helpful. That now concludes the public part of our meeting.
12:58 Meeting continued in private until 13:12.Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 12 November 2025
Audrey Nicoll
Sharon, I can give you a moment, since Jamie stole your question. Are you happy to come in now?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 12 November 2025
Audrey Nicoll
The removal of STV North from the north-east will silence the region’s voice at a critical time when issues such as energy are of national importance. STV North has been an important destination for a pipeline of top-quality north-east journalists, who have cut their teeth on local stories. Indeed, the school of journalism at Robert Gordon University has a strong collaboration with STV North through student placements and a memorial bursary in the name of Donald John MacDonald—the wonderful former STV news editor.
Does the cabinet secretary agree that STV is shamefully closing the door on the next generation of journalists, producers, engineers and creatives in the north-east? Will he join me in calling on STV to immediately reverse its damaging proposal?
