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 1171 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Michael Matheson
You said that 96 per cent of the vessels that will be captured are internationally based. What are the primary options that are available to them to reduce their emissions?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Michael Matheson
Unless diesel is being used to generate the electricity—that is the challenge.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Michael Matheson
Okay. Thanks.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Michael Matheson
Just to be clear, do we set any specification in the grant conditions for the consortia to use local content when spending that money? It could be the case that the £30 million flows right out of the Scottish market to other contractors. Is there a percentage of how much of the grant must be allocated to local content?
09:45
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Michael Matheson
My understanding is that these low-carbon fuels reduce carbon emissions by between 70 and 80 per cent. We need to be realistic with regard to the industry, but there is a drive, for example through project willow, to secure opportunities in the Grangemouth area for things such as biofuels.
On the issue of sustainable aviation fuel, I suggest, to be realistic, that we will not produce much of it this side of 2035, going on the evidence that the committee has heard. However, the climate change plan is silent on biofuels, while we have an industry telling us that we need them. From the committee’s point of view, we are trying to understand why it is silent on that aspect when the industry is saying, “You’re gonnae have to do this”, and when project willow is supporting the idea of investment in these areas. It feels as though there is a mismatch. That is reflected in the overemphasis on the need to electrify HGVs, when the industry is basically saying, “It’s not gonnae happen.”
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Michael Matheson
My final question in this area is on the bus industry, in which, as you know, I have a long-standing interest, given that Alexander Dennis is based in my constituency. There is growing concern within the industry that the 2035 target for no diesel buses is, again, unrealistic and could actually harm the industry, including the manufacturers. There is a view that we should be taking a much more tailed-off approach, rather than a cliff-edge approach, to that. In order to support the bus manufacturing industry in Scotland and the UK, would the Scottish Government be open to looking at going down the route of taking a tailed-off approach to the ending of new diesel buses, rather than having industry face a cliff edge?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Michael Matheson
Thanks.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Michael Matheson
Do you have a target?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Michael Matheson
Should you have a target? If not, why not?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 3 February 2026
Michael Matheson
Okay. It would be interesting to know what further work you are doing in that space. We are investing in what is the biggest infrastructure project in Scotland at the present time. If we did not maximise the local economic benefit from that, it would be shameful, frankly, given that such capital investment represents a huge economic multiplier. It would be good to get some figures on how we are maximising local content in the projects.
