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: 6 February 2025
John Swinney
The best thing that we can do is to power on with our plans for renewable energy development and ensure that Scotland can realise the extraordinary natural resources that we have. I saw that being developed at the Methil yard in Fife yesterday in a collaboration between the United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Government in securing investment from Navantia and securing the future of the workforce at Methil.
We should power on with renewables. That should be the clear policy signal from the Scottish Government.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
John Swinney
Mr Findlay has not balanced a single budget in his life for the public finances. I have balanced 10 budgets in this country and delivered value for money, and I will continue to do so.
I encourage Mr Findlay to go away and do his research. I have set out to the Parliament the issues that have arisen because of the significant inflation in construction costs with which we are wrestling. Why are we wrestling with those costs? We are wrestling with them because of the fiscal mismanagement of the Conservatives, including the Liz Truss budget and the higher interest rates that she bequeathed to us all, and Mr Findlay was right behind the mess that she created.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
John Swinney
What I will do is everything in my power to secure a just transition for everybody involved. We all realise that we will have to make a transition from dependence on fossil fuels, unless, of course, we are going to deny the climate crisis that we are facing. I, for one, am not going to deny the climate crisis.
I want to do everything that I can to support the transition for the workforce in the north-east of Scotland, just as I would like us to be in a position to do more to support the workers at Grangemouth who have been served with redundancy notices. I am deeply concerned by the lack of impetus that we have been able to secure, particularly in projects such as carbon capture and storage, which would provide such opportunities for the future of Grangemouth.
The Government will consider the court’s judgments. We will work with the oil and gas sector to manage the transition that lies ahead, because I want to ensure that we have a strong and prosperous future for those who are involved in oil and gas in Scotland and that we have a strong and prosperous future for the Scottish economy.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
John Swinney
If anyone is remotely interested in hearing my answers, I am happy to give them.
I accept that we missed the 95 per cent target, but I want to reassure the public that the overwhelming majority of patients have been treated within the 31-day target. It is important that Jackie Baillie does not come here every week and spread alarm among the public when our staff are doing their level best to protect the public.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
John Swinney
The Government is considering carefully the court rulings that were announced last week. Decisions on offshore oil and gas licensing and consenting are currently reserved to the United Kingdom Government. We have been consistently clear that the UK Government should approach those decisions case by case on a rigorously evidence-led basis, with robust climate compatibility and energy security being key considerations.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
John Swinney
It is essential that we replace HMP Barlinnie. We have numerous reports from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland that encourage us to do so. The Parliament has pressed us to undertake the project, and we recognise that it has to be done.
Of course, the full rigour of cost analysis has been applied to the project, which is different from the original project that led to the estimate that Mr Findlay set out. I assure him that the Government will monitor and control the costs carefully as the project takes its course.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
John Swinney
The tone of Mr Findlay’s question is absolutely reprehensible and despicable. [Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
John Swinney
This project is different from the one that was originally discussed about a decade ago. The original proposition was based on estimates for a 700-place prison. In fact, the new prison will accommodate more than 1,340 prisoners, so it will be almost double that size.
The Scottish Prison Service has looked at the comparative costs. A recent report by the National Audit Office shows that, in England and Wales, the expected cost per prison place has increased by up to 259 per cent since the initial business case. The price per place has risen to between £610,000 and £840,000 in England and Wales. The price per place for His Majesty’s Prison Glasgow sits in the middle of that range, at £740,000.
Mr Findlay can say all the things that he wants to say, and he can play to all the sentiments that he is very visibly playing to. However, as First Minister of Scotland, I expect my ministers to take rational decisions to protect the public purse and to protect the public by ensuring that those who are sentenced to prison can be accommodated. I will not play games with the type of rhetoric that Mr Findlay has put to the Parliament today.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
John Swinney
All of us can see what Mr Findlay is up to today. [Interruption.] All of us can see it. [Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
John Swinney
It is very visible what Mr Findlay is up to today. He is absolutely terrified of his party being consumed by Reform, as all the polls suggest, and he is playing into its hands with every bit of obnoxious rhetoric that he comes out with. [Interruption.]
