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 1867 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament [Last updated 12:28]
Prison Population
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Katy Clark
Only 2 per cent of this year’s budget for justice and home affairs is assigned to community justice, and only 10 per cent of that community justice budget is to be spent on front-line services, which is a real-terms cut of 2 per cent. Local government has also faced cuts to its budget of about 50 per cent since 2010 and is unable to provide a range of services. The cabinet secretary and I have been in correspondence about this, but she must surely accept that we cannot have real-terms cuts to community justice in this year’s budget.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 28 January 2026
Katy Clark
Only 2 per cent of the total funding that has been allocated for justice and home affairs has been assigned to community justice. Out of that, only 10 per cent has been allocated to third-sector organisations that deliver front-line services. Local authorities provide a significant proportion of community justice. However, their budgets have been cut by about 50 per cent in real terms since 2010, and they say that they are not able to provide the range of services that are needed. Does the cabinet secretary believe that such levels of funding can deliver the shift to community justice that is needed across Scotland to reduce reoffending and tackle the root causes of crime?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 27 January 2026
Katy Clark
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Information Commissioner taking legal action against it in relation to its missing deadlines to produce documents regarding James Hamilton’s investigation into alleged breaches of the ministerial code. (S6T-02866)
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 27 January 2026
Katy Clark
The freedom of information request was made in October 2024. Following both a review and an investigation, the Information Commissioner ruled that the Scottish Government had wrongfully withheld information and that that information should be released by 15 January. Ministers failed to comply with the 15 January deadline and then failed to comply with another deadline on 22 January—only notifying the Information Commissioner of that decision just minutes before the deadline.
The Information Commissioner is clear that he is asking the Scottish Government not to break the law but to comply with it. Does the minister believe that the Scottish Government’s actions so far have been in compliance with freedom of information law?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 27 January 2026
Katy Clark
The Information Commissioner has never before reported a public authority to the Court of Session for non-compliance, which means that the legal action that is now being taken against the Scottish Government is unprecedented. He is clear that, if there is a jigsaw identification issue, ministers have the opportunity to make that case. Has the Scottish Government made that case? Has it responded to the applicant to explain the position? Will the minister provide the Parliament with a timetable—a date when the information will be published?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Katy Clark
To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will comply with the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ruling that files relating to James Hamilton’s investigation into whether the former First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, broke the ministerial code must be published by 22 January 2026. (S6F-04603)
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Katy Clark
The Scottish Government has wasted millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on fighting court cases, with two further appeals relating to the Salmond files coming before the Court of Session later this month.
Will the First Minister ensure full disclosure by releasing all the Salmond files? If he will not commit to that today, will he at least release information that is not being contested through the appeals process? If the Scottish Government loses the appeals, will he commit to not using his veto?
My Freedom of Information Reform (Scotland) Bill would strengthen the powers of the Scottish Information Commissioner, which in turn would prevent the late disclosure of information that happened in this case, introduce proactive disclosure and abolish the First Minister’s veto. Will the First Minister look closely at my bill, which is supported by the current Scottish Information Commissioner and all the previous holders of the role, as it would help to deliver openness, accountability and transparency, which were the founding principles of this Parliament?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Katy Clark
To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will comply with the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ruling that files relating to James Hamilton’s investigation into whether the former First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, broke the ministerial code must be published by 22 January 2026. (S6F-04603)
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Katy Clark
The Scottish Government has wasted millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on fighting court cases, with two further appeals relating to the Salmond files coming before the Court of Session later this month.
Will the First Minister ensure full disclosure by releasing all the Salmond files? If he will not commit to that today, will he at least release information that is not being contested through the appeals process? If the Scottish Government loses the appeals, will he commit to not using his veto?
My Freedom of Information Reform (Scotland) Bill would strengthen the powers of the Scottish Information Commissioner, which in turn would prevent the late disclosure of information that happened in this case, introduce proactive disclosure and abolish the First Minister’s veto. Will the First Minister look closely at my bill, which is supported by the current Scottish Information Commissioner and all the previous holders of the role, as it would help to deliver openness, accountability and transparency, which were the founding principles of this Parliament?
Meeting of the Parliament [Last updated 19:54]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 22 January 2026
Katy Clark
The Scottish Government has wasted millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on fighting court cases, with two further appeals relating to the Salmond files coming before the Court of Session later this month.
Will the First Minister ensure full disclosure by releasing all the Salmond files? If he will not commit to that today, will he at least release information that is not being contested through the appeals process? If the Scottish Government loses the appeals, will he commit to not using his veto?
My Freedom of Information Reform (Scotland) Bill would strengthen the powers of the Scottish Information Commissioner, which in turn would prevent the late disclosure of information that happened in this case, introduce proactive disclosure and abolish the First Minister’s veto. Will the First Minister look closely at my bill, which is supported by the current Scottish Information Commissioner and all the previous holders of the role, as it would help to deliver openness, accountability and transparency, which were the founding principles of this Parliament?
