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 1649 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 27 March 2025
Alasdair Allan
The success of Scotland’s offshore wind industry is a priority for this Government. Our investment forum last week underlined our commitment to attracting investment and demonstrated the approach that we are taking across the public sector by addressing areas such as investment, consenting, skills and grid.
We are working closely with the sector to align our approach to the challenges that it faces. This year, we have tripled our capital investment in the sector to £150 million to support the ports, manufacturing and supply chain facilities required, which is helping to secure jobs and economic benefits at scale in Scotland.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 20 March 2025
Alasdair Allan
As the member is well aware, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on live litigation—[Interruption.] I do not know why people find it unusual that ministers cannot comment on live litigation. However—[Interruption.]
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 20 March 2025
Alasdair Allan
However, I confirm to the member that we will deal with the question of the accounts as a contingent liability in line with our public finance rules and commitments.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 20 March 2025
Alasdair Allan
Once appointed, the scheme administrator will work closely with stakeholders, including local government, to ensure that those questions are taken account of. It is worth saying that more than 50 countries around the world have similar schemes.
We all recognise the important contribution that such schemes can make to tackling problems such as littering and our carbon footprint in Scotland. I hope that all members will work together to ensure that the scheme is progressed, and I am sure that local authorities will be part of that.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 20 March 2025
Alasdair Allan
I realise the member’s commitment to the issue. Her question is one that would be usefully addressed to the UK Government, as the matter is not a shining example of the usefulness to Scotland of the so-called UK internal market act, which has again prevented a devolved nation from moving forward with the deposit return scheme as intended. Urgent action is needed from the UK Government to repeal the internal market act and restore the full powers of devolved Parliaments, so that they might undertake useful schemes of that kind.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 20 March 2025
Alasdair Allan
The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering an interoperable deposit return scheme with England and Northern Ireland in 2027 and continues to move ahead with preparations. We have received an industry-backed application to run Scotland’s DRS as well as the scheme in England and Northern Ireland.
We are currently assessing the application jointly with the United Kingdom Government and Northern Ireland. As it will be an industry-run scheme, we must be assured that the applicant can deliver DRS and act on behalf of all businesses. Any appointment will be announced once the assessment concludes, which we expect to be in April.
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
Alasdair Allan
First, by “next week”, I mean next week. Secondly, on Stephen Kerr’s point about Petroineos, I think that he would be the very first person in the chamber to complain, not without some justification, if the Scottish Government had not been speaking to Petroineos and other companies that are involved directly in the matter. As he says, the report is a Scottish Government report, but it is entirely legitimate for us to speak to the companies that are involved.
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
Alasdair Allan
Michelle Thomson has been diligent in raising the matter, which affects many of her constituents. The project willow conclusions and recommendations will be made available via a public information document, which we hope will be published next week. We are working closely with the UK Government and other partners to finalise the details of that. I look forward to members from across the chamber engaging constructively with the project willow outputs when they become available.
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
Alasdair Allan
As Sarah Boyack has said, there has been investment by both Governments. On 18 February, the First Minister announced to the Parliament that the Scottish Government would lodge a stage 3 amendment to the budget bill for
“£25 million to establish a Grangemouth just transition fund”,—[Official Report, 18 February 2025; c 32.]
which will expedite near-term propositions in the here and now.
The Prime Minister announced that, as part of a major intervention, the National Wealth Fund will provide £200 million of investment for new, future opportunities for Grangemouth. We understand that the funds from the National Wealth Fund will consider only investable propositions and that moneys will be provided on a co-investment basis. Timescales will be determined by those factors.
I hope that Sarah Boyack accepts that both Governments take seriously the task of finding solutions for the future and for the here and now.
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2025
Alasdair Allan
I am disappointed that, based on the latest estimates, we look unlikely to meet our target to reduce food waste by 33 per cent by 2025. The reasons behind that are complex, and they partly reflect changed consumer behaviour since the pandemic. Scotland is not alone in facing that challenge; higher food waste levels have been observed across the United Kingdom.
However, I am taking action to reset the Government’s approach. The circular economy and waste route map sets out how we will deliver more targeted action to support households and businesses.
