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 [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Douglas Lumsden
Does the cabinet secretary agree that the public interest and the community interest are not always the same thing? There is often a conflict between community interests and what might be considered to be the public interest. For example, with a wind farm, there might be conflict between the two. How do we address that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Douglas Lumsden
Will the member take an intervention?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Douglas Lumsden
I agree with a lot of what the deputy convener has said about urban Scotland, where much more needs to be done to get derelict sites out of being derelict and back into use. As we took evidence during the past few months, we never took evidence on urban Scotland and some of these issues, because they were not really part of the scope of the bill. Would it be right for us to open that up now, when we have not taken any evidence? In hindsight—we all have 20:20 hindsight—was it a mistake that those issues in urban Scotland were not part of the bill that was introduced?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Douglas Lumsden
I hear what Monica Lennon is saying. There is misinformation, we should do everything that we can to stamp it out and decisions should be based on evidence.
However, when it comes to some community groups being loud, a lot of them are loud because they are angry at what they see on their doorsteps and they do not feel that they are being listened to. We need to do more about that. If we can bring communities with us on our journey to net zero, that will be a win for us all. I do not feel that that is happening now, and that is why I lodged amendments in that regard.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Douglas Lumsden
Will the member take an intervention?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Douglas Lumsden
At the committee stage, we heard evidence about the ownership of landholdings—for example, a unit trust—being split into small packets, even though they are managed as one. Will those amendments cover that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Douglas Lumsden
Does Bob Doris anticipate any costs arising from his amendments requiring another location for all land management plans to be held?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Just Transition (Aberdeen and North-east Scotland)
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Douglas Lumsden
I thank the minister for advance sight of the statement. It is clear that he has his head in the sand, because the north-east faces an emergency. The Just Transition Commission report needs to be a wake-up call for this devolved Government, because it sets out something that we already know and have been warning about. It says:
“There is still no transition plan for oil and gas workers.”
We know that because the just transition plan and energy strategy were meant to be delivered years ago. I have repeatedly asked when they will be published, but it is clear that the minister and the cabinet secretary simply do not have a clue.
While that uncertainty continues, thousands of jobs in the north-east are being lost. The Scottish National Party cannot keep passing the buck, because we need an affordable, commonsense transition. The front page of today’s Press and Journal lays bare that 400 jobs are to go every fortnight over the next five years. That is like a Grangemouth facility closing every two weeks. The SNP is doing nothing to stop that, and it is continuing with its presumption against new oil and gas.
Does the minister accept that there can be no transition if oil and gas jobs are lost because the SNP is demonising the industry? Will he apologise to the people of the north-east for his Government’s failure to plan properly and publish its energy strategy and just transition plan?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (Public Sector)
Meeting date: 29 May 2025
Douglas Lumsden
In his statement today, the minister has called for insurers and mortgage lenders “to treat home owners fairly”. Will he also instruct the SNP administration and Aberdeen City Council to treat homeowners fairly by improving the derisory offers that have been made to homeowners in Torry?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
NHS Grampian
Meeting date: 29 May 2025
Douglas Lumsden
It is clear that NHS Grampian is suffering from a serious leadership crisis. I welcome the fact that there is at last progress on recruiting a new chief executive. The board has for far too long not had a permanent chief executive in place, with waiting lists spiralling and financial difficulties deepening.
Leadership comes from the top. I genuinely appreciate that the cabinet secretary met me and my colleagues to discuss the issues that we have raised. However, does he agree that it is time for the chair of NHS Grampian, who has presided over the mess, to be moved on immediately so that a leader who better understands the scale of the challenge can be appointed?
