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: 9 October 2025
John Swinney
The general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing has given a siren warning to all of us about the welcome that has to be extended to staff from other countries to come and work in our national health service.
In the year ending June 2025, the number of health and care worker visas issued to nursing professionals fell by 80 per cent. That will have a damaging effect on the operation of our national health service. We all know that there are challenges in relation to the size of our working-age population and a need for an appropriate skilled worker visa route that works in the interests of the national health service. That is one of the reasons why, if we have control of those issues in Scotland, it will be better for the people of Scotland.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 9 October 2025
John Swinney
If Mr Stewart writes to me, I will explore that in more detail. The issue merits a deeper answer than I can offer him at this stage. My first reaction would be that such judgments have to be made on the basis of clinical opinion, but Mr Stewart raises a wider and more significant issue, which I would rather have the opportunity to explore. If he would care to write to me, I will give him a substantive response.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 9 October 2025
John Swinney
As Mr Whitfield knows, I take responsibility for everything here. I am the First Minister of Scotland—I do not dodge that for a moment. We gave a commitment as a Government to honour the Promise. As for the definition of success, I am a wee bit mystified by that point in the Audit Scotland report. It is pretty clear what the Promise has to achieve by 2030, and we are making progress in that respect.
I understand Mr Whitfield’s interest in the question, but substantive progress has been made. For example, we have taken action to ensure that no young people under 18 are admitted to young offenders institutes, and we have fewer children in Scotland growing up in care since 2020—a reduction of 18.1 per cent. Incidents of physical restraint and seclusion are declining in children’s residential accommodation, and more people with care experience are going on to positive destinations nine months after leaving school.
I acknowledge that there is more work to be done. The work has been taken forward very effectively by the minister responsible, Natalie Don-Innes, who has my full support. We have legislation on the issue, which Parliament can scrutinise, and that will be dealt with by Parliament before the close of the parliamentary session.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 9 October 2025
John Swinney
That is a serious issue, because the increase in employer national insurance contributions has reduced competitiveness and opportunities for growth in the Scottish economy. The Government’s analysis shows that the changes could cost employers in Scotland more than £1.7 billion, and the cost to public services is of the order of more than £500 million. That indicates that a significant burden is being carried by business in Scotland, which, as a consequence, is an inhibitor of growth. It is beyond me why a Government that apparently supports economic growth is taking such a measure. It is another example of why we should take decisions here in Scotland on our behalf that are in the interests of the Scottish people and the Scottish economy.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 9 October 2025
John Swinney
As Rhoda Grant will appreciate, the process of appointing members to boards is overseen by ethical standards advisers and it must take its course. However, she makes a substantial point about the necessity for island opinion and experience to inform the decisions of bodies that are acting on issues that significantly impact island communities. Regardless of board appointments, I would expect CMAL, Caledonian MacBrayne, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Crown Estate, NatureScot and all the other bodies that have a locus in relation to the issues and experience of islanders to go to absolute lengths to ensure that they can hear islanders’ opinions, listen to them and address the issues that they raise. Those issues are legitimate and boards must take them seriously. Although board membership cannot reflect Rhoda Grant’s legitimate aspiration in all circumstances, boards must listen to islanders and act on their behalf. I will ensure that that is the case.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 9 October 2025
John Swinney
The Government’s paper that was published yesterday makes clear that there are opportunities to improve the living standards of people in Scotland by exercising the powers that would come with independence. In 2014, we were promised lower bills, financial security and European Union membership, but all those promises have turned to dust. This is the time for Scotland to have a fresh start with independence.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 9 October 2025
John Swinney
I can see the direction of travel in Scotland—it is going towards independence.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 9 October 2025
John Swinney
Under the SNP Government, GDP per person has grown by 10.3 per cent in Scotland compared with 6.1 per cent in the UK, while productivity has grown at an average rate of 1.1 per cent per year in Scotland compared with the UK average of 0.4 per cent. That demonstrates that the point that Mr Findlay has put to Parliament is not correct. [Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 9 October 2025
John Swinney
It is pretty clear to any member of the public watching this exchange that the more Russell Findlay gets personally insulting to his political rivals—[Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 9 October 2025
John Swinney
Living standards in Scotland, as part of the United Kingdom, have ground to a halt. Brexit has been a disaster. The implications of the Liz Truss mini-budget have wreaked economic difficulty and havoc on the people of the UK, and Scotland has been saddled with that, despite the promises of lower prices, lower bills and access to the European Union that were made by the no campaign in 2014.
I am very proud to lead a campaign that is about focusing on improving living standards in Scotland and transforming the lives of the people of Scotland, and we will do that through independence.
