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 110 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Energy
Meeting date: 14 January 2026
Davy Russell
Yes, cabinet secretary, everyone agrees that we need energy security. However, to go back to the issue of initial planning consents for projects over 49MW, do you not think that all schemes should go through the local authorities, rather than only projects up to 49MW, which involve smaller schemes that would have a lower environmental impact?
Whether a project is over 49MW or over 149MW, it does not matter—the larger schemes have a much bigger environmental impact and affect local communities much more. Do you think that everything should, therefore, go through the local authority, and that probably only appeals should bypass that element of the process?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 14 January 2026
Davy Russell
I suggest that we write to the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, highlighting the areas of concern that remain outstanding as identified through the oral evidence and in the petitioner’s most recent submission.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Davy Russell
I suggest closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Scottish Government does not have any current plans to adjust the powers of the courts to impose absolute discharges in criminal cases. Also, if it is considered that the offence should not be punished but that the crime should be recorded and the offender should be made subject to notification requirements, courts have the option to admonish rather than absolutely discharge. The draft guidelines on the sentencing of rape include a minimum custodial sentence of four years and make no provision for absolute discharge as a disposal within the proposed sentencing ranges for rape or sexual assault. This means that a court imposing an absolute discharge would be taking a decision not to follow a guideline and would have to state its reasons for that decision. The Crown can appeal sentences of absolute discharge if it is considered to be potentially unduly lenient.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Davy Russell
You mentioned that the original report was done in 2017 and that, after the Covid period, you reviewed it again to make sure that it was the right way forward. Did the same people review it, or was it done independently?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Davy Russell
You mentioned ScotSTAR transfers. Obviously, the role of ScotSTAR will significantly increase when we move down to three units. Does ScotSTAR have the capacity? In your financial modelling, have you built in any costs for ScotSTAR to increase its capacity to manage the increase in demand?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Davy Russell
The convener mentioned the letter from the neonatal consultants in Glasgow. Do you have that letter?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Davy Russell
Based on your answer, I think that you are telling me that it has not been done yet.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Davy Russell
Yet the parents’ groups that I have heard from—and we had a chat with them—say that you are listening but are still just carrying on regardless.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Davy Russell
I suggest that we close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Scottish Government has been actively undertaking work to address the issues at the core of the petition, including having regular multi-agency engagement and making improvements in reporting and data gathering.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Davy Russell
I hear every week in my casework that the Scottish Ambulance Service is stretched—that is me putting it mildly—and this change is going to put more pressure on the Ambulance Service. Do you have any plans to increase its capacity?
