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 4938 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
John Swinney
Russell Findlay used the term “scraping the bottom of the barrel”. That is exactly what Russell Findlay has just done—[Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
John Swinney
I know that it was the Conservatives. I am well aware that it was them: I am across the factual detail that it was them. I am simply pointing out that I am not going to take lectures about the actions of a United Kingdom Government when that is the record of the United Kingdom Government.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
John Swinney
The Scottish Government does not anticipate any potential impact on planning legislation arising from the UK Government’s proposal to provide bill discounts to people who live near electricity infrastructure. The UK Government’s figures suggest that fewer than 1 per cent of households will be eligible for a discount under the planned scheme.
The Scottish Government believes that it is absolutely essential that communities see a positive, lasting legacy from the infrastructure that they host. Scotland has made good progress on that already through our voluntary approach to community benefits.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
John Swinney
Douglas Lumsden raises an issue related to a policy proposal of the United Kingdom Government; it is not a policy proposal of the Scottish Government. Douglas Lumsden is at the front of the queue to complain when this Government raises any issues with the UK Government’s actions, so I gently point out the complete hypocrisy that is lying at the heart of his question. The Government engages in a wide degree of consultation and dialogue with interested parties on issues related to energy transmission, and that will continue under my leadership.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
John Swinney
The University of the West of Scotland wrote to the Minister for Higher and Further Education in January regarding its organisational change project and multiyear recovery plan, which are seeking to return the university to reporting a surplus in 2026-27. The Scottish Funding Council, on behalf of the Government, will continue to work closely with the university as it pursues that plan.
I greatly value the contribution made by our universities. That is why we are investing, in the budget, more than £1.1 billion in university teaching and research, and it is why we announced an additional £15 million of financial transactions for the Scottish Funding Council in February to support the sector.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
John Swinney
The Government will engage constructively in discussions about university finances. We do that on all such issues. The Government is immersed in discussions about the University of Dundee. I have put on record the discussions that we are having about the University of West of Scotland, which will continue in the period ahead.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
John Swinney
Mr Rennie is in a stronger position to argue for that, because he was prepared to do the tough thing of voting for the Government’s budget earlier this year. [Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
John Swinney
I will not tire of pointing out to the Conservatives the complete and utter hypocrisy of their demanding that we spend more money when, at the same time, they want us to cut the budget. They are beyond credibility in this Parliament. I say to Mr Rennie that we are happy to engage on issues concerning the operation and the future of the university sector in Scotland, and the Government is already engaged in on-going discussions with the sector. However, all such discussions require us to have a mature conversation about priorities. I acknowledge that Mr Rennie and his party have been prepared to do that, and I invite others in the Parliament to step up to the plate.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
John Swinney
We are pleased to be working with Professor Sir Michael Marmot and Public Health Scotland through the collaboration for health equity in Scotland. As part of the collaboration, Aberdeen City Council, North Ayrshire Council and South Lanarkshire Council will work with us over the next two years to share learning from all parts of the system and test approaches that strengthen and accelerate action to improve health and reduce health inequalities.
That valuable work will link into our upcoming population health framework, which will focus on prevention and early intervention, targeting action in the areas and communities that are most in need.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
John Swinney
The UCAN SURE unit has been designed to provide rapid diagnosis for patients. It is intended that the unit will be taken forward within the existing resources of NHS Grampian. I am keen to make sure that there is progress in that respect at the earliest opportunity.
I also point out to Mr Kerr that if he wants more money spent on NHS Grampian, he should have voted for the Government’s budget, which he failed to do. This is just another example of how the Conservatives come to Parliament and plead for something but are not prepared to vote for it.
