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 2048 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Security Scotland
Meeting date: 25 April 2024
Bob Doris
Can a user go to that portal and ask, “Can someone give me a call? I’m a bit confused.”
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee’s Review of Scottish Emissions Targets and Progress Report 2023
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Bob Doris
Of course, the Scottish Government does not work in a policy vacuum. In January—I double checked this during Jackie Dunbar’s line of questioning—The Guardian reported that global car manufacturers had lobbied the UK Government. Just before that, the UK Government moved its target for ending the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035. Can you say a bit about the extent to which UK Government policy levers might compromise some of the ambitions that we have here in Scotland in relation to cars, given that we do not operate in a policy vacuum?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee’s Review of Scottish Emissions Targets and Progress Report 2023
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Bob Doris
It is fine, convener. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to explore the interaction between Scottish and UK policy. I might come back in later to ask about the interaction between the finances and delivering our climate change ambitions.
Professor Bell prompted me to segue—or so I had thought—into a question about the proposed heat in buildings bill, so I will put that question now. In the 2023 progress report, you say that the proposals for the Scottish heat in buildings bill were “strong” and
“could act as a template for the rest of the UK”,
so nations and regions could learn from one another. What impressed you about it? What elements of the bill could make a real difference?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee’s Review of Scottish Emissions Targets and Progress Report 2023
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Bob Doris
I have one final question, but I should first of all point out that we might be repeating your comments from the Official Report of the meeting in a few years’ time, once those matters have come to fruition and the obligations are in place for the private rented sector, property owners, purchasers and the like. We just need to do this, because it is the right thing to do. There is also a longer-term benefit for businesses and home owners.
My final question is about the cost outlay, which will be challenging for a purchaser of a property, a landlord with a small number of properties or anyone living in a property. Professor Bell has talked quite a lot about the fact that none of this is cheap. We need to consider the budget at Scotland’s disposal versus a four-nations approach to working together to decarbonise heating; after all, Scotland’s funding does not work in a vacuum. Would it be helpful if the rest of the UK and Scotland worked in partnership and, if you like, to Scotland’s timetable? That might release some capital to Scotland and allow us to identify cash that we could use to support households and businesses to do some of this stuff; it would mean that we would be able to share the cost between the private sector or the home owner and the public sector. That is the difficult situation that politicians find themselves in.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee’s Review of Scottish Emissions Targets and Progress Report 2023
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Bob Doris
The cabinet secretary has spoken about a four-nations approach. We need to work together in this area. I am conscious that the committee is here to scrutinise the Scottish Government, but does the Climate Change Committee map such policy divergence, or differences in the pace or tone of policy? Is there anything that sits in one place that we can use to analyse the interaction between UK policy and Scottish policy to see what the impact has been on Scotland meeting its targets, so that, as a committee, we can get a better idea of where we are?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee’s Review of Scottish Emissions Targets and Progress Report 2023
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Bob Doris
Before you expand on that, I point out that I agree that Scotland needs to do better. That is self-evident and undeniable, but, as I am relatively new to this committee, I want to know how we can map out stuff about how Scotland and the rest of the UK interact.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee’s Review of Scottish Emissions Targets and Progress Report 2023
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Bob Doris
That was helpful. I know that the proposed bill will also introduce obligations with regard to energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector, ahead of those in the social sector. The private rented sector obligations are to be introduced by 2028, I think, because that sector has a much longer path to travel to make properties energy efficient.
All those things will theoretically be a nuisance, at the very least, or have a financial implication for the owner or purchaser of a property, or the owner of a business who is privately renting. We are all politicians round this table, and we know that, as soon as interest groups raise concerns, politicians’ commitment to net zero can sometimes melt away, for political convenience.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee’s Review of Scottish Emissions Targets and Progress Report 2023
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Bob Doris
That was very helpful. Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee’s Review of Scottish Emissions Targets and Progress Report 2023
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Bob Doris
Indeed. That was a nice segue.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 April 2024
Bob Doris
We will have to reflect on that. Given what you have just said, secondary legislation might be the most appropriate vehicle. Can you confirm the level of parliamentary scrutiny for secondary legislation? Will negative, affirmative or superaffirmative procedure be used, given that the provisions might not be in the bill?
