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 554 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 13 January 2026
Carol Mochan
I want to touch on rurality in Scotland, which you have both mentioned, but I will see whether there is anything else to explore. The Scottish Government’s impact assessment showed that rural Scotland accounts for about 17 per cent of the population, with 6 per cent in a very remote situation. Those areas have a different demographic; there is talk of a changing pattern, with people retiring to rural areas, so access to services is very different. Are you satisfied that the plan gives enough consideration to that? Is there anything else that we should be doing to address health inequality in more rural and island areas?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 13 January 2026
Carol Mochan
That is helpful—thank you.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Local Housing Allowance
Meeting date: 8 January 2026
Carol Mochan
Some of my questions have already been answered, but I want to get some things on the record for clarity. Much of the focus of the evidence session has been on restoring LHA rates to the 30th percentile of rents. Are there any other calculations that we could use? In fact, are there completely different methods that we could use to help low-income renters to secure a tenancy? We have talked about the strategy for tackling homelessness, particularly by getting people into the private rented sector. It is difficult to support people who might want to downsize, so we can provide mitigations in that regard. There is also the issue of housing supply. Are there other things that we should add to the list?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Local Housing Allowance
Meeting date: 8 January 2026
Carol Mochan
I want to link my last question, which you have probably answered, to one that I asked the previous witnesses. For the record, much of the previous evidence that we heard focused on restoring the LHA rates to the 30th percentile of rents. Do the witnesses have anything that they want to add about that calculation? Could we do it differently, or are there completely different methods that we could look at to ensure that we get some meaningful movement for lower-income people in particular in their tenancies?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Local Housing Allowance
Meeting date: 8 January 2026
Carol Mochan
Okay. Thank you.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Local Housing Allowance
Meeting date: 8 January 2026
Carol Mochan
Thank you. That is helpful.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
United Kingdom Child Poverty Strategy
Meeting date: 18 December 2025
Carol Mochan
You used an example that I pulled out, too, about the difference in the way in which England is approaching free childcare. Are you keen to make sure that lessons are learned about how we might do some of the things that are positive in the UK strategy?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
United Kingdom Child Poverty Strategy
Meeting date: 18 December 2025
Carol Mochan
Good morning, cabinet secretary. The strategies of the UK Government and the Scottish Government are set out differently and have different priorities. That is understandable. I am interested in whether there is a wee bit of crossover. To what extent are policies that are already in place in Scotland included in the UK Government’s strategy? Do you see that crossover as helpful? Are there any additional points that you would raise?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Carol Mochan
I have a few questions about those situations in which a reviewer rejects an application. How might that happen? What reasons might there be for such a rejection, and how might they be communicated to people who have applied?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Carol Mochan
In that case, do you feel that, if the legislation were to be changed, those cases would not increase in number and that you could manage them as you manage them at the moment?
