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
Framework Legislation and Henry VIII Powers
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Stuart McMillan
The representative from NFU Scotland put forward a very strong case with regard to the co-design work that took place between the Government and NFU Scotland on agriculture legislation. Obviously, every policy area is different, and co-design will be better suited to some areas than to others. However, we also heard evidence that there might not be full engagement with the wider stakeholder group if the co-design element is focused only on a small number of key stakeholders in a particular sector, so there could be challenges there as well.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Framework Legislation and Henry VIII Powers
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Stuart McMillan
I see that colleagues have no final questions. Minister, is there anything else that you want to put on the record?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Framework Legislation and Henry VIII Powers
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Stuart McMillan
I thank the minister and his officials for their evidence. The committee might follow up with a letter with any additional questions stemming from the session.
11:14 Meeting continued in private until 12:14.Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Stuart McMillan
Welcome to the fourth meeting in 2025 of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. I remind everyone to switch off their mobile phones and other electronic devices or set them to silent.
At some point during the meeting, I will need to leave for a short while, because I have lodged an amendment on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill, which is due to be debated at the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee this morning. At that point, I will hand over to my deputy convener to chair the meeting until my return. I will suspend the meeting briefly when we swap over.
The first item of business is to decide whether to take items 5 to 7 in private. Are members content to take them in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instrument subject to Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Stuart McMillan
Under agenda item 2, we are considering an instrument subject to the affirmative procedure, on which no points have been raised.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Instrument subject to Affirmative Procedure
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Stuart McMillan
Is the committee content with the instrument?
Members indicated agreement.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Framework Legislation and Henry VIII Powers
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Stuart McMillan
Under agenda item 4, we are taking evidence on the committee’s inquiry into framework legislation and Henry VIII powers.
We are joined by Jamie Hepburn MSP, the Minister for Parliamentary Business. The minister is accompanied by three Scottish Government officials: Alison Coull, deputy director of the Scottish Government legal directorate, rural affairs division; Fraser Gough, from the parliamentary counsel office; and Steven MacGregor, head of the Parliament and legislation unit. I welcome all the witnesses to the meeting. Do not press the buttons on your microphones—that will be done for you when you are going to speak. I offer the minister the opportunity to give some opening remarks before we start the questioning.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Framework Legislation and Henry VIII Powers
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Stuart McMillan
Thank you very much, minister. I will open up with a question, before passing on to colleagues.
In your opening comments, you mentioned the issue of whether we should have a definition of framework legislation. In effect, you said that you agree with the majority of the evidence that we have heard, including from academics, that a definition would probably be impossible or far too challenging to undertake.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Framework Legislation and Henry VIII Powers
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Stuart McMillan
With that, if a bill were to be introduced that was defined as a framework bill, would that improve the scrutiny and transparency work that the committees and the Parliament undertake on such legislation, or is that a moot point?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 28 January 2025
Stuart McMillan
Good morning, everyone.
Amendment 524 will repeal section 13 of the 2007 act, which has the provision that currently allows the SLCC to publish a report of a services complaint in certain circumstances. Amendments 526 and 527 are consequential to amendment 524.
Following my engagement with the SLCC, amendment 533, in my name, will allow the SLCC to confirm or publicise that it is investigating a complaint where it would be in the public interest to do so. That provision will significantly enhance the ability of the SLCC to be open and transparent regarding complaints about legal practitioners.
Amendment 534 will allow the SLCC to take a proactive approach to disclosing information regarding large-scale complaints, such as in relation to the case of McClure Solicitors, which colleagues will be aware of my interest in.
I hope that the ability to provide proactive information and disclose the outcome of complaints will significantly improve the information that can be provided to consumers of legal services and improve public confidence. The amendment will allow for greater information sharing between regulatory bodies, where it would support the exercise of the bodies’ regulatory functions.
In terms of what a regulatory body is, the amendment will allow the regulatory bodies to be listed by the Scottish ministers in regulations. Those regulations would be subject to the affirmative procedure. That power may be used only following consultation with all category 1 and 2 regulators—the commission, the consumer panel, the Lord President, and other regulators. The results of that consultation must be published before regulations are laid in Parliament, and the Lord President must agree to the Scottish ministers’ proposal to make the regulations.
I move amendment 524.
