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 2261 contributions
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Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Leases (Automatic Continuation etc) (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Stuart McMillan
Thank you very much. Rachel, would you like to add anything?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Leases (Automatic Continuation etc) (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Stuart McMillan
Yes, please.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Leases (Automatic Continuation etc) (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Stuart McMillan
That was Burges Salmon, which we will be hearing from.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Leases (Automatic Continuation etc) (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Stuart McMillan
I have a supplementary to Rona’s question. If the approach was consistent and both tenant and landlord had to provide notice in writing, would that not provide clarity for both parties, in contrast to when one can be done verbally?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Leases (Automatic Continuation etc) (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Stuart McMillan
In answering my initial question, you said that you were contacted about the issue in 2010. However, some of the evidence to the committee has the opposing view. Burges Salmon felt that the law on giving notice is clear due to the Rockford case. The Faculty of Advocates felt that a “thoroughgoing reform” of the law on tacit relocation is not needed. The faculty also thought that the new statutory code will be “broadly similar” to the existing practice. The Law Society of Scotland said that there is possibility for confusion, as the statutory code will operate alongside the common law during the transitional period that is set out in part 2 of schedule 2, which we will come on to. The Law Society also said that a statutory code will be less flexible than the common law.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Leases (Automatic Continuation etc) (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Stuart McMillan
Before other witnesses come in, I have a question. Are faxes still commonly used in legal activity?
Public Audit Committee [Draft]
“Sustainable transport: Reducing car use”
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Stuart McMillan
The report touches on the work across the Government and the work between the Government and local authorities. Once again, I will use my constituency as an example—I also gave this example during our meeting with the Auditor General. In Inverkip, following a planning process, a piece of land on which there used to be a power station will now be used for housing. The site is equidistant between Inverkip railway station and Wemyss Bay railway station, and the only way for people to get to those stations when the houses are built will be by car. There is not a great deal of parking space at Inverkip station, but there is plenty at Wemyss Bay station.
The issue of planning has come up in various fora over a number of years. For example, a few years ago, I went to a community council meeting at which, when questions regarding access and transport were posed, an individual who was then a councillor said, “It’s not up to the council to fix the trunk road; it’s up to the Scottish Government.” Surely a holistic approach is needed when any planning application is approved, so that all issues can be fully considered, as opposed to people saying, “Let’s just build some houses, and somebody else can try to fix the problems with access and transport.”
Public Audit Committee [Draft]
“Sustainable transport: Reducing car use”
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Stuart McMillan
Thank you.
Public Audit Committee [Draft]
“Sustainable transport: Reducing car use”
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Stuart McMillan
My constituency has an increasing older population and Inverclyde is at the lower end of car usage and ownership. Another point concerns the topography of Inverclyde. Access to local bus transport is hugely important to get people from the outer parts of Inverclyde into the town centres to work, shop and the like. In my community, bus transport is hugely important but, like elsewhere, we have seen a reduction in bus services. That is a challenge that we face.
Public Audit Committee [Draft]
“Sustainable transport: Reducing car use”
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Stuart McMillan
I could go on, but I will move on to the matter of EV charging points. Once again, I will use Inverclyde as an example. Graham Simpson chaired a tenement maintenance working group in the previous session of Parliament, and a variety of issues were raised in that group. On the issue of tenements and built-up areas, I look at my area and think that there are people who will want to purchase an electric car and will then need access to EV charging points. Charging a vehicle is a bit easier for someone who has a house with a driveway; it is a lot more challenging for people who live in tenements and in built-up areas. I am keen to find out what further activity has been considered to help with that.
