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 Commission
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
The committee would be interested in that. We have to determine what we, as a committee, want to do, and you might want to advise us on what it would be most useful for us to do. There is no point in our repeating work that you are doing, but we need to work in synergy somehow.
If we are being quite innovative, in a global sense, in our approach to the just transition, the challenge is that we have to make difficult choices. Will we need to make big, bold decisions relating to the just transition in Scotland, or will piecemeal, segmented activity with seedcorn funding provide a way forward? That is a genuine dilemma. Has the commission discussed that?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition Commission
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
The committee could focus on skills. Some of the skills that need to be developed might not be used to deliver projects until five years’ time, for example, but if we do not start investing in the supply chain and developing those skills now, we will not necessarily be able to deliver and scale up, particularly in relation to renewables, when work needs to be done at pace. The issue is how we support supply chain companies that use engineering skills, for example, to make those investments and decisions now, given that they might not necessarily reap the rewards for five years. A genuine transition challenge relates to how we support companies to do that, and that might require state subsidy. We need to think about the issue in those terms. Will the commission look at that, and should the committee potentially look at it?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition Commission
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
I should probably point out that I am the only MSP who sits on the Economy and Fair Work Committee and on the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, to which Professor Skea has also given evidence. I am interested in how we dial up the just transition focus in this committee and respect what that other committee might be looking at, such as land use, land reform and transport. It is about how we get that read-across.
I want to ask specifically about the just transition fund that exists for the north-east and Moray, which obviously involves focusing and making a decision on a place-based approach to just transition. Did your commission advise the Government in advance of the announcement of the initial £50 million funding for the 24 projects in the first tranche?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition Commission
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
The plans and projects that exist are all very good and worthy in and of themselves, but some of them are probably focused more on delivery of net zero than necessarily on a just transition. There will be an obvious fault line between trying to generate the transition and focusing on the “just” aspect of it in relation to fairness and the principles that you have established.
If there is to be funding for a just transition, should it be mainstreamed in the areas that have already been mentioned—housing, energy and transport, for example—with private companies involved, or would there be merit in having stand-alone just transition plans that were supported by funds? If criteria had to be met for those funds, would the commission advise on that? If you are advising on the sector just transition plans, are you also advising on the criteria for funding, or is that still work in progress?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition Commission
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you very much.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Water (Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22)
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Thank you—that was very informative.
Johanna Dow, do you want to say anything about relationships and about what your customers do, as well as what you do?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Water (Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22)
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Peter Farrer, please explain how Scottish Water is integrated into the wider public sector. Perhaps you could talk about operational decisions regarding planning. Major housing developments, not least in my constituency, can overwhelm drainage capacity. Also, following on from what Douglas Millican has said, if methane or other emissions are an issue as we move to a circular economy, what connections do you have with the Scottish Funding Council to ensure that research in our universities meets our practical and operational needs regarding product emissions? How central is Scottish Water to the wider public sector firmament?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Water (Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22)
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Finally, I will ask Susan Rice about the priority for the board on the strategic challenge. To what extent does the biodiversity crisis sit within that, alongside the climate change emergency? Is the board addressing those issues? Are there any difficulties with the regulatory constraint whereby SEPA is on one side and the water commissioner is on the other?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Water (Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22)
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Finally—again, it might be Peter Farrer who is best placed to answer this—what changes in demand have you noticed during the Covid-19 pandemic and also as a result of the energy crisis? They are two separate issues but in the same kind of timeframe. What influences on demand have they had for Scottish Water?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Water (Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22)
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Fiona Hyslop
Customers.
