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 634 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 16 January 2024
Sarah Boyack
Have you analysed the different costs of increasing modal shift? We have lost so many bus services. Part of the issue is how you stabilise and sustain those services, as the minister has said, but it also about creating new services that attract people, which could be a matter of timings or routes. The community bus fund is £1 million. Is there some issue with start-up costs in order to get this going? Is that the block? Having introduced the 2001 act, I know that there is a huge gap between having the powers available and actually using them.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 16 January 2024
Sarah Boyack
I am sorry—I was using the fund.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Governance
Meeting date: 16 January 2024
Sarah Boyack
I was going to move on—the example was given beautifully, actually—to SEPA and Scottish Water on what difference has actually been made. I will pick up the point that Bridget made about wellbeing and sustainable development. There is Scottish Government work in considering policy and legislation, and there is my member’s bill. What difference is ESS is making to relationships? I ask SEPA first, then Scottish Water.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Governance
Meeting date: 16 January 2024
Sarah Boyack
Thanks. Does Scottish Water have a particular perspective on the matter?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Governance
Meeting date: 16 January 2024
Sarah Boyack
I was thinking about the upcoming human rights legislation, which may propose a new human right to a healthy environment, and about how that would be delivered in practice with both an enforcement framework and different legal and non-judicial opportunities for redress. How does that relate, following on from Ben Macpherson’s questions about an environmental court and linking into Aarhus convention compliance? I can see a couple of nods. I do not know who wants to kick off.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Interests
Meeting date: 16 January 2024
Sarah Boyack
Thank you, convener. If you look at my entry in the register of members’ interests, you will find that I am a member of a number of organisations, which I have declared. The main declaration to make is that I was the cabinet secretary who introduced the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001. I say that just for peoples’ interest.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Governance
Meeting date: 16 January 2024
Sarah Boyack
That is really useful. Does anyone else want to come in on the back of that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Governance
Meeting date: 16 January 2024
Sarah Boyack
Yes, that is really helpful. It links into the issue of the extent to which Environmental Standards Scotland has functioned in the way that people expected. I can see some nodding from Dr Shivali Fifield and Professor Sarah Hendry. Does one of you want to kick off on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 16 January 2024
Sarah Boyack
It is fascinating to come in on the back of those questions, because, although I have not declared this, I actually introduced the first free bus travel scheme for the over-60s in Scotland. It is interesting to see the extent to which members of the public are now using concessionary bus passes, whether they be over 60 or under 22.
I just wanted to follow up on that by asking about the Scottish Government’s strategy and funding streams to ensure that we get more people using buses. As colleagues have pointed out, we have lost a lot of bus services over the last few years. For the piece of work that we are looking at today on bus services improvement partnerships, what analysis have you done of the benefits of such partnerships versus bus franchising and the costs and benefits of the different options? One thing that feels clear is the resource issue so that local authorities can choose what to do, whether it be BSIPs, as you have mentioned, or bus franchising. After all, there will be start-up as well as on-going costs. Do you have a cost benefit analysis that you can share with us about the choices to increase modal shift?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 16 January 2024
Sarah Boyack
This will be my final question, as we have to move on. Have you done any analysis of how many routes will be saved or added through the bus priority fund partnerships? What analysis has been done on modal shift?
