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 1524 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Budget 2022-23
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you very much. That is very much appreciated.
Community organisations and town centre development trusts have told us that they have had difficulties in accessing funding from local government for their projects, but they have been able to bid for funds from national Government. Can you point to anything that is in the budget for the forthcoming year that community organisations will be able to bid for? I am particularly interested in capacity building and revenue for staffing that would help communities with creative projects that can bring people along with them.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Budget 2022-23
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Fiona Hyslop
No. I am asking about bodies such as community development trusts that are leading projects in their own communities. That might involve housing or working with businesses. Those very localised projects have told us that they struggle to get funding from local authorities, but they have been able to bid for national Government funds, which must be in your portfolio. We would like to know what funds will be available for those community development trusts and others to bid for in future.
That is not just about capital projects. Those people are volunteers, and resources and revenue for staffing can help to deliver projects on the ground. Any project that wants to install heat pumps across a whole town might need town leadership from the community development trust and others. Some projects might be very small, but I know from experience in my own constituency that some could develop into something quite significant.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
National Planning Framework (Energy)
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I have a short follow-up question. Kirstanne Land referred to the national development sites. Are they too restrictive? For example, Nigg port in the Cromarty Firth is not even mentioned.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Budget 2022-23
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Good morning. We face a twin crisis of climate change and biodiversity loss, so I will focus on the natural resources budget. The allocation is £29.8 million, but that must fund local nature networks, the restoration of Scotland’s rainforests, the commitment to protect 30 per cent of land for nature by 2030—that is a high target—and a nature restoration fund of £13.5 million, which is almost half of that budget. That is in addition to the reform of wildlife management and the development of a new biodiversity strategy.
Those are wide-ranging, multiyear commitments. It would be helpful to the committee if you could provide a breakdown of spend in the natural resources budget in 2022-23. With the importance of the biodiversity crisis, what do you envisage the profile of spend being in that policy area over the next few years?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
National Planning Framework (Energy)
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you. I turn to other witnesses. I want to hear first from Dr Kerr, and then from Elizabeth Leighton, on policy 19. I am interested in the alignment between pursuing net zero and other requirements in relation to NatureScot and Historic Environment Scotland, for example. How can we ensure that NPF4 supports simultaneous assessment by—and, perhaps, early intervention by and work with—Historic Environment Scotland, as already happens in major transport schemes? Should that be applied to energy schemes?
Also on policy 19, how should small-scale renewables schemes be assessed and viewed in designated areas? Should support be given to community-owned projects? How does policy 19 help with that? What improvements are needed to help small-scale renewable projects?
Feel free to comment on anything that you have heard.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
National Planning Framework (Energy)
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Okay. I am happy to pass on my questions to others, but I am interested in the principle of co-ordination with other areas. Do you have any overarching views on that? Other witnesses can pick up the specifics.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Budget 2022-23
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Cabinet secretary, you will be aware that we are conducting an inquiry into the scale, shape and importance of local government in delivering net zero. We have heard evidence from local government about how it is working with the private sector and about local authorities’ concerns about their budgets.
Much of your portfolio budget will end up going to local government, and it will probably be used in three different ways. First, local authorities will distribute money on behalf of the Scottish Government. Secondly, they will bid for funds to carry out net zero projects that are directed by the Scottish Government. Thirdly—I am not sure whether this exists—discretionary funding for net zero projects might be given to local authorities to do what they think is best for their area.
I am not suggesting that you can answer this question off the top of your head—although I would welcome it if you can. Can you give us an indication of how much of your budget sits in those three areas? It would be helpful if your officials worked with the committee to get a sense of how much of the budget is going to local government in those ways. Ideally, we would like to know that for the coming year but, if you cannot say that, perhaps you could tell us about the current year. Is that possible? It would involve some work, but it would be helpful because of the importance of local government in meeting net zero targets.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Budget 2022-23
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Blackburn, which is in my constituency, is one of the climate towns that you referred to. Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
National Planning Framework (Energy)
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I ask Kirstanne Land for her views on policy 19.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Budget 2022-23
Meeting date: 1 February 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I am sure that the committee would like to hear about that report when it is available and how you intend to fund that. It is clear that your budget meets the targets that you have; the issue is whether those targets are sufficient for what is required. It is about the climate change target as opposed to the budget.
