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 2390 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
I will ask my final question, and then maybe George can come in on that and the other aspects.
At last week’s meeting, the leader of Glasgow City Council, Susan Aitken, made an interesting point about the capacity in councils. She was talking about the capacity in her council, which is the largest in Scotland, but that is clearly an issue across multiple councils. For smaller councils, it will be an even bigger issue. How can councils work together? How can there be a sharing of capacity across the public sector? SSN is obviously one route to do that, but how do we create vehicles that enable councils and public bodies to work together to create more investable propositions, whether that is on heat, transport, procurement or any of the other issues that we have spoken about? Is there enough collaboration?
11:15Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
Access to resources has been a bit of a theme this morning. I want to go back to Ailsa Raeburn and Mark McRitchie on access to land. It seems that, as we are tackling the climate emergency by developing renewables and putting in place nature recovery measures, carbon sequestration and so on, communities could have a role in that regard. However, access to land is a concern, and issues have been raised around green lairds and private sector investment in land. What do you see as the most important next steps in land reform, if communities are to become more involved in climate adaptation and mitigation? Perhaps Ailsa Raeburn can start.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
Thanks. That is useful.
Philip Revell mentioned that the climate challenge fund is coming to a close at the end of March. The Government has shifted into a new programme of climate action hubs, and there has been some limited investment in climate action towns. Will you reflect on whether the model of climate action hubs is, in effect, taking the CCF to a more mainstream roll-out of solutions? Have there been issues with that? What has been the reaction of your network’s members?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
That is useful, Lorna. I have had a few conversations with public sector bodies in the past few months, and I know that a number of them are questioning whether they need large office spaces. We talk a lot about the cost of carbon reduction, and I wonder whether there are savings to be made there or whether there is a particular trend of working out the assets that organisations have and perhaps thinking about their service delivery in a different way.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
Yes, but what about someone who is involved in a regional land use partnership? Can all those land managers and stakeholders use it right now? Could it help to inform decisions about what farmers are doing in riparian habitat management or nitrogen application on a catchment scale?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
George Tarvit and Mark Williams want to come in, and I see that John Wincott has something to say.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
Thanks for that comprehensive answer. Does Mark McRitchie have anything to add to that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
I will ask about a couple of areas that have not been covered yet and, perhaps, a few wrap-up questions from last week’s evidence.
I will ask first about transport, which we have not talked about. Many public sector bodies are now considering the provision of office accommodation, transport and a different work-life balance post pandemic. What impact is that having?
Related to that and to the climate target is the Government’s target for a 20 per cent reduction in vehicle mileage. How do we reduce that mileage?
For essential travel, how are we progressing with the procurement of electric vehicles and decarbonising the travel that is required?
I do not know who to direct that to, but I see that Lorna Jarvie is nodding her head.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 18 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
So it is not just about a single yearly budget conversation; it is more about a transformative change in organisations.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
United Kingdom Internal Market
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
I have a brief follow-up question for the OIM. I am thinking about the common frameworks that have been established—there is one, for example, around waste and the circular economy. Some regulations are in place already—regulations that, in effect, made the cut and are emerging, such as deposit return schemes—and new regulations are coming forward that will come more fully into the remit of post-Brexit consideration of EU alignment or otherwise. How do you work with those? Is there, in effect, a firewall? You would not consider the deposit return scheme, for example, because that existed previously, although regulations can be updated over time. However, the common frameworks span all three areas and I am interested in where you draw the line, because some of them have contexts that affect each other.
