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 1590 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Statistics 2023
Meeting date: 12 June 2025
Alasdair Allan
I do not think that there is any tradition in the Scottish Government of leaving notes on desks or anything like that.
The member makes important points about transport, which has proved to be a difficult sector to decarbonise. We are right to talk about how Scotland has transformed the way in which we generate electricity, but we are facing up to the fact that other parts of the charts that have been released this week are more challenging, and transport is one of them. The Scottish Government recognises that the transport sector needs to decarbonise in order for us to achieve net zero, and we are committed to doing that in a fair way.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Statistics 2023
Meeting date: 12 June 2025
Alasdair Allan
As we have seen in recent years—not least during Covid—annual emissions targets are highly vulnerable to in-year fluctuations such as cold winters and, indeed, global pandemics. That does not mean that we will not produce annual figures; we are doing that, and I have just outlined them to Parliament.
However, multiyear carbon budgets provide a more reliable framework for sustained progress in emissions reduction by not only smoothing out volatility but allowing us to move to a carbon budget framework, as supported by the Climate Change Committee following its success in the UK and in other countries. It advised that carbon budgets are the most appropriate indicator of underlying progress in emissions reduction.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 12 June 2025
Alasdair Allan
The Seafield waste water treatment works involves a PFI contract that was awarded in 1999, and contractual obligations for its delivery and operations lie with the PFI company until 2029. The contract is funded by Scottish Water.
Some £34 million has been invested in Seafield since 2011 and, in 2020, Scottish Water committed a further £10 million to provide additional sludge storage capacity to improve odour performance. Scottish Water remains committed to delivering improvements for customers and will keep community representatives updated through the Seafield stakeholder group. Scottish Water is at an early stage in developing its plans to ensure a smooth transition of operational responsibility once the PFI contract expires.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 12 June 2025
Alasdair Allan
We will provide more detail on the next steps in relation to the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021 alongside the introduction of the heat in buildings bill. However, I can assure Parliament that we intend to deliver the rights and powers that are detailed in part 6 of the 2021 act, and that we are working to ensure we do that in a way that avoids duplication with Great Britain-wide authorisations so as to minimise the regulatory burden on the heat network sector in Scotland.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 12 June 2025
Alasdair Allan
I mentioned the heat in buildings bill, which we have committed to introduce in year 5 of this session of Parliament.
With regard to the points that were made about earlier legislation, it is worth saying that we are now exploring introducing an opt-in rights and powers licence via the heat in buildings bill, which would be akin to the installation and maintenance licence that is being introduced in the rest of GB. That is because many of the provisions of part 1 of the legislation, such as those to do with financial wellbeing, will be covered by Great Britain-wide authorisation. More detail will follow when the heat in buildings bill is introduced, but I assure Lorna Slater that that will happen in this parliamentary year.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 12 June 2025
Alasdair Allan
I am not sure that I would characterise the future situation as one in which we will have a huge excess of electricity, given the electrification of the country that is taking place. However, I understand Sarah Boyack’s point about the need to ensure that different local authorities work together. We are seeking to support such work in the part of the world that she represents, and we will do that elsewhere in the country.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Care Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Alasdair Allan
On a point of order, Deputy Presiding Officer. I attempted to vote no. I am seeking to find out whether it registered.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 5 June 2025
Alasdair Allan
We welcome the report from the Just Transition Commission. As I set out in my statement on Tuesday, we accept the headline recommendations in principle. Before doing further planning, we first need clarity on the United Kingdom Government’s intentions in a range of key reserved areas, including the future regulatory and fiscal regimes for North Sea oil and gas and support for the Acorn carbon capture and storage project.
Aside from planning, the Scottish Government is taking action. We will continue to provide support to the region, including through the new £8.5 million round of the just transition fund for the north-east and Moray.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 5 June 2025
Alasdair Allan
As I mentioned, there is on-going support from the Scottish Government in a number of those areas. The Scottish Government is committed to developing heat networks as a key part of the way in which we will decarbonise our country in the future.
As I mentioned, we have funded Zero Waste Scotland to provide capacity building in support of local authorities. It is also worth pointing out that, in Edinburgh—which will be of interest to the member—the council has recently utilised its funding to further refine the zones that are identified in its LHEES and to seek legal counsel on the most appropriate delivery model to bring heat networks to market.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 5 June 2025
Alasdair Allan
Communities are important, and I attempted to touch on that issue in my statement. On the member’s point about community benefit, I think that she might be talking about onshore developments. The Scottish Government is in touch with the UK Government—because the issue of mandating community benefits is reserved—about ensuring that communities are the mandatory recipients of benefits in the future.
