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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 3728 contributions
|
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Sue Webber
To ask the Scottish Government how many victims were notified in 2025 of the early release of an offender under any early release or temporary release scheme. (S6O-05334)
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Sue Webber
We believe that victims should know if their assailants will not be completing their full sentence and will be at large in communities. We have been told that only 2 per cent of victims were notified of their offender’s early release under the last emergency release scheme. That is, frankly, appalling.
The cabinet secretary gave the figure of 100 per cent figure in her answer, but the sum total of that figure is people who were registered with the victim notification scheme. Hardly any victims have registered with the victim notification scheme, and Victim Support Scotland has raised concerns about delays in reforming that. Can the cabinet secretary guarantee that the majority of victims, not only those who are on the VNS, will be notified in advance?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Sue Webber
Having a resilient CalMac fleet means ensuring that the new vessels are delivered on time. Despite the First Minister’s reassurance that the MV Glen Rosa would set sail before May’s election, we heard the dreadful news, before Christmas, that that lifeline vessel will not be delivered until the end of this year. The blame for this national scandal lies squarely with Scottish National Party ministers. Can the cabinet secretary outline what additional costs will be incurred by the delay and where the money will come from? What actions are ministers undertaking to ensure that the vessel is finally delivered?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Sue Webber
Motorists have had enough of this Government. After frequently being egged on by Green members to penalise motorists, ministers should focus on delivering the long-overdue upgrades to vital routes. I have not driven on French roads recently, but I doubt that they are as pothole-ridden as ours. [Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Sue Webber
That is a victory for common sense. From the start, the Scottish Conservatives campaigned against these unevidenced proposals and, unlike the Scottish National Party Government, we were on the side of most Scots, who did not want a change to the national speed limit.
Although it is good that, as outlined in the cabinet secretary’s response, work will continue to raise the speed limit for HGVs, will she now guarantee that plans to reduce the speed limit to 50mph for cars and other vehicles will be permanently shelved? Will she ensure that she will not seek to punish motorists with any other damaging policies?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Sue Webber
We are desperate for the A9, the A75, the A77, the A96 and the A90 to be dualled. Instead, we have had this daft proposal, along with other anti-car ideas that are in the pipeline, such as local authority congestion charges, punitive low-emission zones and the extrapolation of controlled parking zones, as well as roads that continue to deteriorate. Although I welcome the move to drop this foolish idea to reduce the speed limit to 50mph, can the cabinet secretary guarantee that she will finally end—for good—the war on our motorists?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Sue Webber
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has decided not to take forward changes in relation to national speed limits on single carriageways. (S6T-02809)
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 11 December 2025
Sue Webber
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the CalMac vessels being constructed in Turkey are delivered on schedule and on budget. (S6O-05283)
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 11 December 2025
Sue Webber
Last week, it was announced that the MV Isle of Islay is going to be delayed. Considering that that is the first of our four vessels that are being built in Turkey, will the cabinet secretary say, in detail, what actions she is undertaking to ensure that the remaining three vessels will be delivered on schedule? How is she working with CMAL to ensure that the vessels can enter service more quickly and that they will not require immediate repairs on their arrival in Scotland?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Road Network (Connectivity and Economic Growth)
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Sue Webber
[Interruption.] Sorry—I am phoning someone by mistake.
Scotland’s road network is the backbone of our connectivity and economic growth. Communities across Scotland, from the Borders to the Highlands, rely on safe, efficient and modern roads to access jobs, education, healthcare and life opportunities, yet Scotland’s roads have been neglected by the Scottish National Party. Dangerous and deteriorating roads are costing lives, damaging local economies and leaving motorists stuck with long, unsafe journeys on roads that should have been fixed years ago.
Motorists are essential to Scotland’s economy and crucial for our connectivity, but they are being punished by the SNP Government. Too often, promises are made and not delivered. The SNP will dual the A9 10 years late at the very earliest. It has failed to dual any of the A96, despite promising to do so in 2011. The SNP has also spent £30 million on the Inverness to Nairn upgrade despite no construction having begun. If we are serious about unlocking Scotland’s potential, the SNP Government must accelerate the upgrading of key roads such as the A75, the A77 and the A96, and it must finally deliver on its commitment to dual the A9, without rejecting the private investment that could help to make that happen.
The state of key roads across Scotland is a national disgrace, and the SNP’s incompetence is continuing to cost lives. SNP ministers have sat on their hands while roads have fallen into a state of total disrepair, despite repeated promises to dual roads such as the A9 and the A96. It is unacceptable that motorists are being treated with contempt by an SNP Government that, shamefully, keeps kicking the can down the road.
We are the only party at Holyrood to have proposed bold action to tackle this issue. We would pass an emergency law at Holyrood that would set out a special fast-track process for completing the A9 dualling project. We would also pass an emergency law that would see key sections of the A75 dualled by 2031 and the entire road dualled as quickly as possible thereafter.
