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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 4938 contributions
|
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
John Swinney
—of austerity. I cannot believe that the Labour Party is comfortable with the fact that its United Kingdom Government is going to deliver welfare reforms that will increase poverty levels in the United Kingdom. I invite Parliament to think about that point for just one moment. A Labour Government has come into office and poverty is going to rise. That demonstrates that there is no point in the Labour Party, because Labour delivers poverty and austerity to the people of Scotland when the SNP Government is reducing child poverty in this country. I will take that to the country and be proud of our record.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
John Swinney
The Scottish Government accepts the judgment of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that “woman” in the Equality Act 2010 is defined by biological sex, and the Government accepts that ruling. I also accept that the court emphasised that that decision does not reduce trans people’s protections from discrimination, whether or not they have a gender recognition certificate. The Equality Act 2010 expressly prohibits discrimination against and harassment of trans people, and it is not necessary to have a GRC in order to be protected. I believe that the vast majority of people in Scotland want to live in a country that is respectful, compassionate and caring, and I am committed to protecting the rights of all. That will guide all my actions as First Minister.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
John Swinney
I agree with Mr Cole-Hamilton about the economic challenges that we face as a consequence of the decisions of the Trump Administration and the volatility that has flowed from that. That is why I gathered together a range of stakeholders during the Easter recess to ensure that the Government is well sighted on the issues that individual sectors are facing as a consequence of the unwelcome changes in international trading arrangements, which generate a great deal of volatility.
In relation to the points on education, we will work with our local authority partners to increase teacher numbers. That was one of the central commitments made in the budget that we negotiated with our local authority colleagues. The Government has delivered its side of the bargain in relation to financial support to local authorities, and I look to local authorities to recruit.
There is co-operation through the strategic board for teacher education, which explores the issues around recruitment and addresses some of the challenges. The bursary scheme came as a consequence of practical endeavour by the Government to address those issues.
I assure Mr Cole-Hamilton that there is no lack of energy in Government to ensure that our schools are well supported with the recruitment of teachers to meet the needs of children and young people in Scotland.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
John Swinney
The Scottish Government recognises the vital role that rural schools and early years provision play in sustaining local communities. Responsibility for decisions about local provisions rests with local authorities. Any closure, temporary or permanent, should be considered in consultation with local communities.
We are reviewing guidance on mothballing to provide greater clarity on whether it is an appropriate action to take. That will ensure that local decisions are based on effective engagement with the community, better reflect the needs of rural families and help to maintain access to early learning in such communities.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
John Swinney
Throughout this whole discussion, I have made it clear that the rule of law must be the central consideration of the actions of Government, and that is what we will take forward in all our judgments. I am aware of the judicial review decision that the Court of Session announced yesterday in relation to Scottish Borders Council. That judgment does not involve the Government—it involves Scottish Borders Council. However, the Government will consider the issues that arise out of that, as we consider all aspects of the reform of regulation that is required.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
John Swinney
I have set out that the Scottish Government accepts the judgment of the Supreme Court, which ruled that, in the Equality Act 2010, a woman is defined by biological sex.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
John Swinney
The Scottish Government is giving full and proper consideration to the appeal, and every effort is being made to issue a decision as soon as possible. It would not be appropriate for me to say any more in relation to what is a live planning case.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
John Swinney
On the substantive point that Mr Cole-Hamilton puts to me, there are challenges in the recruitment of teachers to particular specialisms. The Government has acknowledged that in the steps that we have taken. For example, the teaching bursary scheme provides a £20,000 bursary to career changers, which is aimed particularly at individuals who aspire to be maths teachers. We recognised that, if people were leaving jobs in other sectors to go into teaching, we had to provide a mechanism to enable them to do so, and those mechanisms have been made available. The Government provides more than £186 million to support the recruitment and retention of teachers, to ensure that we reach 2023 levels in our local authority employment of teachers. The Government is working in partnership with local authorities to ensure that we achieve that objective.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
John Swinney
In one of his earlier questions, Mr Findlay said that the Conservatives had been warning about all of this for years. I will read to the Parliament a comment that was made by Alison Harris, who was a Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament during the previous parliamentary session. On Tuesday 30 January 2018—[Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
John Swinney
The Official Report of the Parliament shows that Alison Harris said:
“As a member of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee, Annie Wells was pleased to see positive changes being made”
to the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Bill
“at stage 2 ... In particular, she was pleased to see the committee agree to Mary Fee’s amendment 10, which sought to broaden the definition of ‘woman’ so that the legislation would be as inclusive as possible, recognising that not all trans women possess a gender recognition certificate.“—[Official Report, 30 January 2018; c 26.]
I simply read that into the Official Report to show that the Conservatives—[Interruption.]
