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 4204 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 27 February 2025
John Swinney
CalMac faces an incredibly congested set of circumstances as a consequence of issues in the ferry fleet, which Mr Gibson has narrated. CalMac has undertaken planning to ensure that routes can be serviced and essential services delivered. The situation will be kept under constant review to ensure that there is adequate support for lifeline services.
New vessels are scheduled to be delivered. The Glen Sannox is now in operation. Four other vessels that are due to join the fleet are being constructed at the Cemre yard and the Glen Rosa is also due to join the fleet.
The assurance that I can give Mr Gibson is that the expansion and modernisation of capacity is under way. He will also be aware that the Cabinet Secretary for Transport has made a significant intervention to ensure the sustainability of routes out of Ardrossan in the years to come.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 27 February 2025
John Swinney
I am afraid that Mr Sarwar will have to learn to adapt his questions based on the information that I put on the record. Let me repeat that information—[Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 27 February 2025
John Swinney
The overall poverty-related attainment gap has reduced by 60 per cent since 2009-10 in the face of unremitting austerity from the United Kingdom Government. Progress is being made, and there has been improvement in the outcomes for young people over that period.
Mr Sarwar talked about the outcomes for young people leaving school. The percentage of young people in a positive destination three months after leaving school is 95.7 per cent, which is the second-highest level since records began.
I accept that there is work to be done, but Mr Sarwar has to accept the evidence that I am putting on the record. As a consequence of the investment that this Government has made, we are making progress in improving outcomes for young people and in closing the attainment gap. The Parliament should support that endeavour.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 27 February 2025
John Swinney
The first thing that I want to say to Winifred and her family is that I am sorry for the experience that they have had. As I have recounted on a number of occasions to the Parliament, the health service faces extraordinary pressures as a consequence of the demand for assistance in our healthcare system. I do not know when that incident happened, but, if Mr Cole-Hamilton furnishes me with the details, I will respond to that in full.
As Mr Cole-Hamilton knows, and as I have recounted to the Parliament, we have had extraordinary pressure on our healthcare system over the winter period as a consequence of flu.
I can reassure Mr Cole-Hamilton that, according to the latest data available, 12-hour waits and eight-hour waits in accident and emergency departments, which are both completely unacceptable, are falling as we begin to get on top of the implications of the wave of demand that the healthcare system has faced.
The Government is working closely with health and social care partnerships to reduce the level of delayed discharge, so that individuals are properly supported in their homes.
As a consequence of the agreement that we managed to secure with the Liberal Democrats on the budget, local authorities will be able to benefit from having more resources at their disposal to invest in social care to support individuals such as Winifred, and the health service will obviously have more resources.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 27 February 2025
John Swinney
I am very happy for the health secretary to meet Mr Sweeney and his constituent on that question. I am not quite clear about the status of the drug, which will obviously determine what can be made available, but I am happy to encourage that discussion to take place to address the points that Mr Sweeney has put to me.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 27 February 2025
John Swinney
Obviously, the Government acted in 2016 to ensure that there was not a closure at Dalzell. We endorse Mr Rennie’s points about the importance of securing productive activity there. We are aware of the GFG Alliance’s financial issues. Scrutiny of the issues is being undertaken by ministers—Mr Rennie correctly points out that there are loan-related issues involved. The Government is assiduously engaging to make sure that the interests of the workforce and the financial interests of the Scottish Government are protected at all times.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Budget (Scotland) (No 4) Bill
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
John Swinney
Therefore, the challenge for the Conservatives is, at what point will they spell out where the swingeing cuts will be made?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Budget (Scotland) (No 4) Bill
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
John Swinney
Will the member take an intervention?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Budget (Scotland) (No 4) Bill
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
John Swinney
I thank Liz Smith for giving way again.
The Conservatives can make that general comment, but they do not then go on to give a specific commitment on what elements of the social contract should be removed. Should it be the expansion of early learning and childcare? I think that that would be an absolutely foolhardy decision. Should it be the reintroduction of tuition fees? I think that that would be a foolhardy decision as well. We have made huge progress on access to higher education—
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Budget (Scotland) (No 4) Bill
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
John Swinney
I put on the record that I will miss Liz Smith’s contributions to this Parliament and I welcome the contribution that she has made over the years.
On the point about issues such as the Scottish child payment, does Liz Smith recognise that the investment that is made in lifting family incomes, in and of itself, assists as an economic stimulus in communities because it boosts the spending power of individuals to spend locally on crucial investments in their family circumstances? Is that not part of the evidence that supports the cabinet secretary’s point that Scotland is the only part of the United Kingdom that is demonstrating that child poverty is falling compared to other parts of the United Kingdom, where measures such as the child payment do not exist and child poverty is rising?
