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 2620 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Douglas Lumsden
I do not want to put words in your mouth, cabinet secretary, but just for clarification, are you saying that the Government would go forward with the bill and make changes to the community right to buy, but the review might then recommend other changes, which might result in further changes to the legislation? Is that right? The question is just for my understanding.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Douglas Lumsden
Does Andy Proudfoot want to say anything?
Meeting of the Parliament
Grangemouth
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Douglas Lumsden
I welcome the announcement that ScotWind money will be used to support the workers of Grangemouth. Those workers have done so much over the decades to keep our country powered up and moving, and it is right that we support them as much as we can.
In his statement, the First Minister said that the funding will be available immediately in the new financial year to support businesses and stakeholders to bring forward investable propositions. Will he give more detail on what governance arrangements will be put in place to evaluate the propositions and to make the awards? Will he assure Parliament that any process that is put in place will act swiftly, to avoid any gaps in employment?
Meeting of the Parliament
Great British Energy Bill
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Douglas Lumsden
We were promised 1,000 jobs in Aberdeen but have now been told that that is going to take 20 years. Were we misled?
Meeting of the Parliament
Great British Energy Bill
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Douglas Lumsden
GB Energy is a sham. The Prime Minister is taking my constituents for fools. The structure of GB Energy is absurd, and it will take 20 years to deliver the promised 1,000 jobs. In the next five years, we can expect, at most, 200 jobs to be created. The UK Government’s plan is not a credible plan for economic growth. Instead, it represents 20 years of pain and decline for the north-east of Scotland. Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost as Labour shuts down the oil and gas sector without offering a meaningful replacement.
Labour is blatantly attempting to hoodwink the public. Before the general election, Ed Miliband promised to cut energy bills by £300 through Labour’s net zero policy. What rubbish. Where is that promise now? Why would the Scottish Government wave through the legislative consent motion? Maybe it does not have a plan of its own. The energy strategy and just transition plan is years late, and it is still nowhere to be seen. The devolved Scottish National Party Government seems content to agree to the motion even though the details of GB Energy are so thin on the ground.
We already have applications for developments in the North Sea that will provide 30GW of energy. GB Energy will have no impact on that investment, so I have to ask: what is the point? It is a political bung that is being provided in an attempt to placate the residents of Aberdeen.
How will all that energy be transported? It will be transported by destroying our countryside and communities with monster pylons. The Labour Party wants to carpet bomb the countryside with pylons and substations, and the SNP devolved Government is only too happy to supply the ammunition.
We need to drill more wells, issue more licences and extract more oil. The economically illiterate socialists on the other side of the chamber, supported by the extremist, unhinged Greens, have tried for years to destroy the livelihoods of my constituents. No one in Aberdeen is buying it. The pathetic and desperate attempts to throw the words “just transition” in front of everything that we do in relation to wind turbines and battery storage do not wash with my constituents in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
Oil and gas from the North Sea are good for Britain, good for Scotland, good for the environment and good for jobs. The devolved SNP Government likes to talk about how we are the Saudi Arabia of renewables. What a lot of hot air. Why do we not talk about using all the oil and gas infrastructure that has been built up over years and generated billions in tax profits?
Meeting of the Parliament
Great British Energy Bill
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Douglas Lumsden
Bob Doris knows only too well that the LCM is about the creation of GB Energy, which will provide absolutely nothing for my constituents. Instead of supporting an industry that brings in money, Labour has made it clear through the establishment of GB Energy that it is doubling down on an industry that we subsidise through contracts for difference and constraint payments. I have nothing against building a renewable energy source, but why on earth are we not supporting oil and gas extraction?
GB Energy is a policy of national self-harm. Yet again, the nationalists and the socialists are doing what Putin and his cronies want. Perhaps if the Labour Party took less money from eco zealots and started talking to oil and gas workers, Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer would know that and would understand the truly existential issue in Aberdeen. Just as Harold Wilson closed more coal mines than any other Prime Minister, Keir Starmer will be the Prime Minister who shuts down the North Sea oil and gas industry.
No one—and I mean no one—knows what GB Energy is going to do, but I can tell members what it will not do. It will not stand up for oil and gas workers, it will not support oil and gas extraction and it will not make bills cheaper. What makes bills cheaper? More domestic oil and gas production and drilling, which has the side effect of providing secure and well-paid employment for years to come. That is what my constituents need right now, not empty promises from the SNP or empty offices from Labour.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Douglas Lumsden
To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the Court of Session’s decision regarding the Rosebank oil field and the Jackdaw gas field. (S6F-03781)
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Douglas Lumsden
Our North Sea workers are being failed by the Labour Government and by this devolved Scottish National Party Government. The decision on Rosebank and Jackdaw is a hammer blow to the north-east. We will import more oil and gas instead of using our own resources and supporting our own workers.
A poll by True North shows that nearly three quarters of Scots back the North Sea oil and gas industry. Will the First Minister also back the industry and drop his disastrous presumption against new oil and gas production before more jobs are lost?
Meeting of the Parliament
Medication Assisted Treatment Standards
Meeting date: 5 February 2025
Douglas Lumsden
How are MAT services working in partnership with the residential rehabilitation providers to create seamless pathways from medication assisted treatment to abstinence-based recovery? Are there established protocols or referral systems in place to facilitate that transition?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Douglas Lumsden
Tara Wight, do you agree with Sarah Madden and the Scottish Land Commission that there needs to be a bit more flexibility on people selling small pockets of land—maybe a house or something else on their land—so that it would not fall into the legislation? They mentioned de minimis considerations.
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