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 3805 contributions
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Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Scottish Public Inquiries (Cost-effectiveness)
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Kenneth Gibson
I am tempted to comment on that. I think that a lot of these issues are raised by members in members’ business debates and in the chamber, and ministers are put under pressure in any case. After all, inquiries are not just decided; there tends to be a build-up of pressure, with a lot of public angst, media inquiries and so on. Your point is well made, though, and it is certainly one that we will consider.
Thank you very much, Mr McGuire. Again, we greatly appreciate your taking the time to come along and give evidence—it is a really important part of the work that we are carrying out. I should say that we will continue to take evidence for the inquiry over the rest of this month and into the next, and we will be reporting on our findings not in five years, but in December.
Meeting closed at 12:14.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Kenneth Gibson
In your submission, you say that the Treasury’s apparent reluctance to underwrite the additional funds essential for a UK-wide scheme
“leaves the Scottish Government with few options other than replicating the levy approach adopted in England and Wales.”
Your mentioned a progressive scheme. I note that, from my reading of the bill—this is our first public evidence session on it—it is already looking quite complex. In your submission, you say that
“a complex scheme could increase the risk of unintentional non-compliance”
as well as the cost of administration. How do you square that circle in relation to trying to make it somewhat more progressive while, at the same time, not making it too complex?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Kenneth Gibson
Your submission goes on to say:
“if implemented correctly, the levy can contribute toward a market incentive for better quality building work, reducing the need for future remediation and giving buyers greater confidence in safety standards.”
That is what we want to achieve. However, given that the levy would add, for argument’s sake, £3,000 to the price of a house, would some builders not try to cut corners further so that they do not have to pass the cost on to customers? Could a levy have the opposite effect?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Kenneth Gibson
I completely agree with you, but there is an issue with the scrutiny. Someone—the clerk of works, or whoever—has to check that the work has been implemented to the correct standard.
Two years down the line from a development in my constituency—I will not say which one—being fully occupied, we suddenly found out that the sewerage system had not been installed to the required standard, which is causing issues, as you can imagine. It is not just about having the regulations but about ensuring that they are fully implemented.
Mr Drummond, you said:
“Firstly, Scotland needs to preserve and build upon its existing public sector building control system. Secondly, procurement must be very substantially improved to ensure higher quality in construction.”
How do we do that? Do we have the people with the skills to do that? Is that quality out there? What lead time did you have in mind for implementing that?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Kenneth Gibson
We could talk about a number of other points, but all five of my colleagues around the table are keen to come in.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Scottish Public Inquiries (Cost-effectiveness)
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Kenneth Gibson
That was a helpful comment.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Scottish Public Inquiries (Cost-effectiveness)
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Kenneth Gibson
They might set out terms of reference. Police Scotland is not here today; we invited them, but they declined, unfortunately. That is one of the reasons why we are so pleased that you accepted our invitation. I mean that sincerely. It is important that we have one of the legal firms that are involved in the matter here. I really appreciate your evidence today, and I know that my colleagues do as well.
I am speculating on what Police Scotland is suggesting, but I think that it is along the lines of saying “These are the terms of reference, and over the next six to 12 weeks, this is what we are going to do straight off to try to make things better”.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Kenneth Gibson
It is no wonder, John, that you want to spend so much of your time in a tent.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Kenneth Gibson
Good morning, and welcome to the 27th meeting in 2025 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee.
Agenda item 1 is an evidence session with the Minister for Public Finance in relation to three draft affirmative instruments on administration of the Scottish aggregates tax. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for this evidence session.
The minister is joined today by two officials: James Lindsay, tax design lead, Revenue Scotland; and Jonathan Waite, aggregates tax bill team leader, Scottish Government. I welcome our witnesses to the meeting and invite the minister to make a short opening statement.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Kenneth Gibson
As no member on the committee has any questions, we move to item 2, which is formal consideration of the motions on the instruments.
Motions moved,
That the Finance and Public Administration Committee recommends that the Scottish Aggregates Tax (Administration) Regulations 2025 [draft] be approved.
That the Finance and Public Administration Committee recommends that the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act (Postponement of Tax Pending a Review or Appeal) Amendment Regulations 2025 [draft] be approved.
That the Finance and Public Administration Committee recommends that the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act (Record Keeping) Amendment Regulations 2025 [draft] be approved.—[Ivan McKee]
Motions agreed to.
