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 2841 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Green Economy
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Douglas Lumsden
Will the member take an intervention?
Meeting of the Parliament
Green Economy
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Douglas Lumsden
This is an important debate to shine a light on our move towards a more green economy and on how the Scottish Government should be doing more to support the industries that are contributing so much to achieving that goal.
Economic growth is key to ensuring the health and wellbeing of the people of Scotland. We must move forward by building our economy and encouraging entrepreneurship to drive industry and deliver growth. It is only through economic growth that our country can grow and we can deliver the public services that we all rely on.
However, we know that the Scottish Green Party members of this Government are fundamentally opposed to economic growth. They would put a stop to key industries in Scotland, such as our oil and gas sector, and they have stopped green energy sources such as nuclear energy being established in Scotland.
If we are to truly have a just transition and build our economy on a green footing, we must be able to explore options such as nuclear energy and green hydrogen. Scotland is falling behind when it comes to new technologies, and it is as a direct result of policies from this devolved coalition Government that we are seeing Scotland’s economy grow at a slower rate than that of the rest of the UK.
Meeting of the Parliament
Green Economy
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Douglas Lumsden
I will make some progress first.
Cuts are being made to vital industries that are leading in the areas of green economic growth, and the budget also makes Scotland the highest-taxed part of the UK, with that gap set to become wider. By stymieing investment and cutting funding, this Government is moving backwards when we should be moving forward. It is making life more difficult for business leaders, communities and individuals with higher taxes, lower investment and cuts to public services.
Meeting of the Parliament
Green Economy
Meeting date: 24 January 2024
Douglas Lumsden
I will continue a little further.
Those cuts will affect our ability to grow the economy and make the transition to a greener future more difficult because, although the SNP-Green coalition speaks highly of its green credentials, the reality is very different.
In November last year, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity postponed the publication of the draft climate change plan. To date, the Scottish Government has failed to achieve eight out of 12 of its emissions targets. Scotland is not delivering on key milestones such as energy efficiency in homes and peatland restoration.
In the Scottish Government budget, there is no commitment to green policies or economic growth; instead, we see cuts on cuts on cuts. The transport, net zero and just transition budget has been cut; the total rail services budget has been cut; the just transition fund has been cut; support for sustainable travel has been cut; the energy efficiency and decarbonisation budget has been cut; funding for Skills Development Scotland has been cut; and hydrogen support has been cut.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 23 January 2024
Douglas Lumsden
Is it needed, given that you think that the governance is good, and if so why?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 23 January 2024
Douglas Lumsden
Do you mean that the £93 million that is still due to be spent during this parliamentary session will not now be spent?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 23 January 2024
Douglas Lumsden
In late 2022, the Scottish Government website said that the next tranche of hydrogen investment would be in early 2023; I am not sure whether that happened. In September 2023—in a response to a written question—the Government said:
“The next tranche of the hydrogen investment programme, the up to £90m Green Hydrogen Fund, will launch later in 2023.”—[Written Answers, 29 September 2023; S6W-21610.]
I presume that that did not happen. You have said that you have had to reprioritise because you have had a difficult budget—which I understand—but does that mean that there will not be a next tranche during the upcoming budget term?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 23 January 2024
Douglas Lumsden
Okay. I will move on.
The closure of the Grangemouth refinery was a big shock, but is it correct that that does not affect the Acorn project at all?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 23 January 2024
Douglas Lumsden
Yes. Working with the industry will be key. In a letter to the First Minister, the chief executive of Ithaca Energy said:
“Rosebank’s £8 billion investment is ... welcome”
but that he is disappointed
“that no Scottish Minister gave any sign that the jobs likely to be supported in Scotland by this project were welcome.”
He went on to say:
“Domestic oil and gas production has fallen by 70% from its peak pre-devolution. We have explained this many times to Ministers and officials, so it is disappointing to hear the language of ‘unlimited extraction’ still used by”
the First Minister
“and other senior Ministers.”
He also said:
“Without support for oil and gas, our human capital and supply chain will be lost to the booming energy sector opportunities overseas thereby slowing down the energy transition.”
Do you accept those comments that the narrative that the Scottish Government is using about oil and gas will slow down our energy transition?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
Meeting date: 23 January 2024
Douglas Lumsden
I will move on to hydrogen, cabinet secretary. There was £100 million pledged for the support of green hydrogen during the current session of Parliament, but it looks like only 7 per cent of that has been allocated so far. Can you set out how the rest of that money will be allocated?
