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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Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Who is responsible for the just transition plan for energy and who is responsible for the one for agriculture? Is it the respective cabinet secretaries with oversight of those portfolios? How will that work?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Clearly, the green hydrogen potential for Scotland is enormous, but we will need a bridge to get there, and the Acorn project is key in that. Last spring, the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee produced a cross-party report highlighting the importance of that. We must bear it in mind that we will not necessarily be able to see that shift to sustainable aviation fuel—or, indeed, the big green hydrogen market that we anticipate that Scotland could realise—for some time. However, it will have an impact on the just transition, particularly for Grangemouth.
I assume that the just transition plan that you produce will not be set in stone, because the plan will be affected every time that there is a milestone or an intervention of what, we hope, will be positive decisions. When you publish it next year, will you make it clear how you will maintain it on an iterative basis, so that it is not only current but forward looking and visionary?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Fiona Hyslop
This inquiry is part of the preparation, and we want to input into your plan. We do not expect you to be definitive about what will or will not be in it, but we are discussing what we have heard. Colin Smyth talked about the need for a route map and about how there perhaps should be tangible points along the way to 2045 and the realisation of the final vision.
One of the transport issues that we have heard about is congestion around the site because of the many vehicles that transport the high levels of fuel that are, as you have said, key to the central belt of Scotland. However, there seems to be a lack of ownership, with no one responsible for resolving that issue, and it would be an easy win.
Another win would be to look at the north-south connections from the M8 to Grangemouth. If we are talking about STPR2, I note that the Avon gorge road was the only non-trunk road to be mentioned, and it would stop big lorries, tankers and so on having to do 40-mile round trips. It is probably the only green road in Scotland.
If we are thinking about meaningful wins along the way, whether they relate to transport, housing, flooding measures or whatever, those are the things that we have heard about. I am not saying that they have to be the priorities—although I would argue that they should be, given my constituency interest in the Avon gorge road, in particular—but when you produce your plans, will you look at things that make wider sense and that result in tangible wins not just for the industrial site but for the community around it? Do you expect to consider such issues over the next few months?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Apologies for straying on to a colleague’s area of questioning, but I was more interested in the five-year review and how that sits with a continuous improvement agenda, which everybody seems to recognise we need to have. Does that relate to your point about there being certain things that we would need to assess more regularly than every five years? That is more of a policy agenda? We know that we need standards. However, we do not want compliance with standards to get in the way of what seems to be a wider continuous improvement agenda that can be monitored and assessed more regularly. Is that your view?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Fiona Hyslop
To put the issue in context, I note that, if we use that timescale, a child who starts primary 1 aged five will almost have left primary school by the time of the review. I am not saying anything about a particular school but, conceptually, in relation to improvements, five years is quite a long time in the life of a child.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Does the Scottish Government have any views on the WHO’s air quality guidelines, as revised in 2021, and whether they should be implemented in Scotland?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Cabinet secretary, what are your expectations with regard to LEZs? We have heard that there will be different plans in different cities to address the local situation. We have also heard about the fact that the LEZs will have to reflect, for example, the bus fleet in a particular area. Will you share your views on that, given that we are looking at air quality more widely as part of our discussions?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Fiona Hyslop
Do you have a view on the Scottish Government’s support for local authorities that have been failing to meet their objectives under local air quality management systems? Is there any evidence of improvement in the support that is being provided?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Fiona Hyslop
On timescales for improvement, your view is that a five-year review cycle is not consistent with trying to get compliance as soon as possible. Are you satisfied with the Government’s response on that?
