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 1445 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Tess White
The industrialisation of the north-east, which Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks is pursuing through its monster pylon plans, is causing alarm and trauma. I recently met Angus farmers, who, along with other stakeholders, raised serious concerns with me about the overhead lines’ impact on prime agricultural land.
The use of farming machinery, such as autonomous tractors, also has worrying implications. Has the Scottish Government considered the loss of agricultural productivity that will result from SSEN’s plans, and will it commit to protecting our food security and farmers in the north-east?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Tess White
Udny Station GP surgery in my region is the latest casualty of the Scottish National Party’s chronic mismanagement of primary care. A lack of clinical workforce, rising operational costs and population growth mean that the surgery is set to close its doors, which will leave rural communities in the lurch. This is not the first time that I have mentioned the issue. Why is the SNP Government still failing to resource GP surgeries, such as the one in Udny Station, to meet the needs of rural populations? What action will it take to address this unacceptable situation?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Business Motion
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Tess White
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app would not work. I would have voted yes.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Tess White
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made an assessment of the potential loss of agricultural land in the North East Scotland region as the result of development. (S6O-04516)
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Business Motion
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Tess White
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app would not work. I would have voted no.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft] [Draft]
Scottish Human Rights Commission
Meeting date: 1 April 2025
Tess White
Jan, my colleague Evelyn Tweed asked about “serious gaps” in the Highlands and Islands. In the north-east of Scotland, there seem to be huge issues with rural proofing, including problems with access to healthcare and the centralisation of other services, and a lack of efficient, effective public transport. For example, the X7 bus service has been reduced, which has had huge impacts on the population, including severely negative impacts on people with learning difficulties. General practices are closing at twice the rate in rural areas as they are in the central belt, which is also a huge issue. Practices are in crisis because they are struggling to cope and survive.
That lack of rural proofing by the Scottish Government is a massive problem. In your view, what can the Scottish Government do to address it? Do you believe that Scottish ministers understand the significant impact on rural and remote communities?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft] [Draft]
Scottish Human Rights Commission
Meeting date: 1 April 2025
Tess White
So you will keep at it, but the jury is out.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft] [Draft]
Scottish Human Rights Commission
Meeting date: 1 April 2025
Tess White
Jan, in your opinion, what barriers have prevented full implementation of the coming home implementation plan and how should accountability for the failures be enforced?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft] [Draft]
Scottish Human Rights Commission
Meeting date: 1 April 2025
Tess White
From my experience of being on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. I know that social workers are at the core of the system, but figures from the Scottish Association of Social Work paint an alarming picture. For example, 25 per cent of social workers leave the profession within six years of graduation, and 19 per cent of the profession is over the age of 55. The total vacancy rate is just under 10 per cent, and, in Angus, in my area, it is 15.7 per cent. Many of those vacancy rates are long standing. Social workers are at the core of the system, so that constant churn of social workers is alarming.
In your view, has the Scottish Government failed to follow up on the coming home implementation plan? The infrastructure, including the workforce, is simply not in place for it to do so.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft] [Draft]
Scottish Human Rights Commission
Meeting date: 1 April 2025
Tess White
I previously sat on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, and we completed an inquiry into self-directed support last year. It is clear that the system is not working. SDS is not working, and vulnerable people are being badly let down. The SHRC report highlighted specific issues with self-directed support. What are your concerns about SDS, and how can they be remedied?
