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 1491 contributions
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Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Michael Marra
I suppose that our questions relate to the pipeline of work. We have heard ministers—you included—talk about a 10 per cent cut, as you have called it, in capital expenditure, but it seems to have resulted in a 100 per cent cut in capital projects going forward in the NHS or in a full pause while you wait for further clarity. It would be very useful to get an idea of how much of that relates to legacy spend that has already been committed and therefore has to be coped with.
Perhaps I can contrast that a little bit with your approach to net zero and just transition. Capital spend in the NHS has gone up by £235 million, while the net zero and just transition portfolio is seeing a net decrease of £217.9 million. Is that a decision that ministers have taken, or is that just the reality of where the projects find themselves?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Aggregates Tax and Devolved Taxes Administration (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 March 2024
Michael Marra
On that visit, we also heard that it is about distance, because much of the carbon impact comes from transport. Mr Sharma, will you respond to that point about the balance between where you source the material versus the kind of material? How is your local authority balancing that in considering its carbon impact?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 20 February 2024
Michael Marra
I genuinely am not. What I am asking you is whether you are telling the universities to cut the number of students or to cut the amount of money per student. That is not about additional money. I am asking you about the process that you are undertaking with the universities via the Scottish Funding Council.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 20 February 2024
Michael Marra
I am also asking about the competent operation of the system. At the moment, people are applying for university courses and are being offered a conditional or an unconditional place. The difference is that the teaching budget is to be cut significantly, and the universities that are offering conditional and unconditional places do not know how many places they can offer. That is not usual.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 20 February 2024
Michael Marra
That is not what I am saying.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 20 February 2024
Michael Marra
The difference this year was to be that there would be no threats. There was to be no saying, “Take this or we’re going to punish you for it,” but that is exactly what you are doing now.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 20 February 2024
Michael Marra
I think that this is the fourth time that I have asked you this question, Deputy First Minister.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 20 February 2024
Michael Marra
The Federation of Small Businesses has also made representations on this area. The evidence that we have been hearing is that this is a budget for growth, but this seems to be a key ask, and it is for a reasonably small amount of money relative to the global budget. Indeed, given that the issue cuts across a variety of different stakeholders on the economic side, I just feel that the move could do with being justified a little bit more robustly.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 20 February 2024
Michael Marra
You have not lodged any amendments today but, since you made the budget announcement, the circumstances for universities have changed quite significantly. The medium-sized institutions in Scotland are particularly affected, with some running in-year deficits of up to £15 million. That could have significant impacts on their own budgets. Have you had discussions with the sector about how you could flex or assist in any way?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 20 February 2024
Michael Marra
To be fair, that is not what I was suggesting; I was suggesting that the circumstances have materially changed. That will affect employment for people in those institutions and it will affect their financial stability. I am asking whether you have had conversations with them about how robust the sector is. That is a pretty reasonable question to ask.
