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 [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2025
John Swinney
It is interesting that Mr Sarwar has shifted the ground of his argument on private treatment. Some months ago, Mr Sarwar put to me a figure that was a much more significant accusation on the amount of private treatment that was under way. I cannot remember the exact proportion, but it was of the order of something like one in six of the population, which was absolutely a ludicrously nonsensical figure. Mr Sarwar has changed his ground.
Let me give Mr Sarwar some reassurance about what is happening about long waits. Between April and October this year—[Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2025
John Swinney
First, I am very sorry to hear of the details of the experience of Isobel and Martyn Knights. I am happy to explore the exact circumstances of the case that Mr Cole-Hamilton has put to me. The purpose and focus of accident and emergency is to provide immediate intervention for those who are in the gravest of conditions, and it is my expectation that that should happen in all circumstances.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2025
John Swinney
It is disappointing that the UK Government’s budget contained no commitment to end the freeze on local housing allowance. Next year will be the second year of the freeze and it will be three years since the local housing allowance was last uprated. The Resolution Foundation has warned that next year, the gap between real-world rents and housing support will be the biggest on record.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2025
John Swinney
The procurement process for the replacement of MV Lord of the Isles engages complex legal and subsidy control issues. Any decision must take into account the responsibility that we have to secure the best outcomes for our island communities and businesses. We are currently considering the business case and next steps in relation to MV Lord of the Isles replacement and we will confirm those in due course.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2025
John Swinney
As I indicated in my earlier answers—and I think that Katy Clark will appreciate these points—there are complex issues of a legal nature, in relation to subsidy control, that the Government simply cannot ignore. I am enormously sympathetic to and supportive of a future for the yard. That is why the Government has committed investment to support the yard, which will be available to the yard at the moment when it is appropriate for it to be deployed. We are open to working with the yard to strengthen its competitive position to enable it to win vessel contracts and take those forward on an on-going basis. That remains the focus of the Government’s intervention on the issue.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2025
John Swinney
No—that is not the case. The reason why the education secretary made that announcement yesterday is that she carries Cabinet responsibility for child protection issues, of which all that material is comprised. On Tuesday, the education secretary led the discussion at Cabinet, which involved all Cabinet colleagues, including the justice secretary, about the steps that the Government is taking, which I set out to Parliament last week in response to a question from Pam Gosal. All of that is the responsibility of the Government, and it is led by the education secretary. I have set out to Parliament the steps that we are taking.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2025
John Swinney
Anybody who observes these exchanges at First Minister’s question time will understand that I am the first to accept that there are challenges in ensuring that the NHS recovers from the disruption of the two years of the Covid pandemic. I accept that that challenge exists, but significant progress is being made. For example, the number of planned and performed operations in Scotland represents the highest level since January 2020, before the pandemic. In the 12 months to October 2025, 297,014 operations were planned, which is a 4.5 per cent increase from the previous 12 months, and 271,328 operations were performed, which is an increase of 4.6 per cent. That demonstrates that, although there are challenges, progress has been made, and the plans that I have put in place to focus on long waits are beginning to take effect.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2025
John Swinney
Between April and October this year, new out-patient waits of more than a year reduced by 17.9 per cent—that is just since April. In the same period, the waiting list size for new in-patient and day-case procedures waiting more than 52 weeks has reduced by 26.1 per cent.
I say to Mr Sarwar that I accept that there are challenges in the national health service as a consequence of the Covid pandemic, but this Government is delivering on the progress that I said would be made.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2025
John Swinney
The Government responded to that request by indicating that it would report regularly to Parliament, and that is exactly what the Government will do.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2025
John Swinney
I am very supportive of securing a future for the Ferguson Marine yard. More than 10 years ago, I worked hard to ensure that it survived the difficulties that it faced at that point, and the Government has given the yard sustained support over many years.
As I indicated in my earlier answer, the issues around the MV Lord of the Isles direct award are complex and involve significant subsidy control issues that the Government cannot ignore in any way, shape or form. However, I give Mr McMillan the assurance that the Government is absolutely committed to working with Ferguson Marine to secure its future.
