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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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 13 June 2023
Bob Doris
Minister, from your evidence so far, it would appear as though the Scottish Government is open to a four-nations approach where, if there were any concerns about the interoperability of the level of deposit, labelling, or the size of the container, those could be worked out and it would be maybe not essential but desirable for there to be that maximum alignment across all four nations.
Has the UK Government had opportunities to raise concerns about what labelling might look like in Scotland, what the size of container might be and what the level of deposit might be? If it has had those opportunities, has it had those opportunities for six months, for the past year or for the past two years? Have those concerns ever been raised with the Scottish Government?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 13 June 2023
Bob Doris
Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 13 June 2023
Bob Doris
That has been a very reasonable line of questioning. I am just passing through this committee; I am here for one evidence session only, but it is fascinating.
I am not sighted on the cost to industry for the years when the scheme is not in existence, but there is still a cost to endure there. It appears, minister, that the experience, learning, infrastructure and expertise that Circularity Scotland has built up in recent times would be of direct benefit to the UK Government and to the other devolved nations. I know that Circularity Scotland is an independent organisation that is separate from Government, but is the Scottish Government doing anything to join those dots and be an active party by saying to the UK Government, “Look at this experience, learning, infrastructure and expertise. Let us get round the table and look to see how we can make sure that this organisation is sustainable,” so that the UK Government actually makes those decisions? In theory, that could in part lead to a financial commitment from the UK Government.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 13 June 2023
Bob Doris
I am in your hands, convener. We are half way through a line of questioning by Liam Kerr that raises additional questions on which I would like clarity, which is why I would like to ask some questions under this agenda item.
Minister, I can well imagine the fake outrage, had the Scottish Government withdrawn this set of regulations, brought in others and tried to bulldoze those through the DPLR Committee and this committee before recess. Some people in this room, who are now criticising our putting these regulations through, would express absolute outrage if the Government sought to bulldoze through other regulations. I leave that sitting there and go to my substantive question.
You have a meeting tomorrow with Rebecca Pow. Can you confirm that the UK Government does not have a power of veto over individual statutory instruments and regulations that the Scottish Government brings to the Parliament? That would be quite helpful.
However, I take it that you take cognisance of what UK ministers say. Is it possible that, following discussions with Rebecca Pow tomorrow, the final details of what is in a fresh statutory instrument might change slightly, depending on those discussions? If they might, it would not make sense to withdraw these regulations, bring in fresh ones, then bring in a third set further down the line.
I want to know a little more about that meeting tomorrow with Rebecca Pow, because it would be crazy to have three different sets of regulations going about, as some on the committee might anticipate.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 13 June 2023
Bob Doris
Thank you.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 7 June 2023
Bob Doris
Minister, it is interesting that you mention being here a few weeks ago, because I want to go back to the future a little bit. When I was first elected, in 2007, a young constituent of mine in Sighthill who was originally from Mogadishu in Somalia could not go to university because of the rules and regulations at the time. I made representations to the then Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Fiona Hyslop, and regulations were put in place to allow young people from asylum-seeking families to go to university. This is something that we have fixed and dealt with appropriately previously. Unfortunately, through the passage of time, we have not been as attentive to the legislation as we should have been, to make sure that future generations of young people who are in the asylum process can have their right to an education.
Will the new regulations be kept under review to make sure that we do not find ourselves in that back-to-the-future position again, given that the Scottish Government previously did the right thing and my constituent was the first asylum-seeking under-18 to go to university in Scotland with a fully funded place?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 7 June 2023
Bob Doris
I thought that I was giving the appropriate context. I have got City of Glasgow College to accept that it will charge my constituent home student fees if they can take up their place and have no right to funding from the Student Awards Agency Scotland. Is the Government looking at any pot of cash—I know that this is hugely challenging in the current times—that students might be able to access when the higher education institution has agreed and is willing to charge home student fees when they do not have to, to allow my constituent and others to access higher education?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 7 June 2023
Bob Doris
It is all relevant to the regulations.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 7 June 2023
Bob Doris
I welcomed the regulations before I heard from the minister, and I got the assurances that I required from the minister that they are robust. The only further assurance that I need is that our committee will continue to monitor them and return to them during the next parliamentary session, to see how successful they have been and how we can improve them further.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Subordinate legislation
Meeting date: 7 June 2023
Bob Doris
That is helpful. Now that I have talked about going back to the future, I will ask about future proofing. I had a constituent who was over 18 when they arrived in Scotland, but they will be here for a heck of a long time and certainly way beyond three years. They still have no decision on their case and they have no temporary leave to remain. They are keen to get a higher education place at the City of Glasgow College. They will not be captured by the regulations and I absolutely understand why, but something will have to give at some point. I would prefer it if the Home Office speedily made the correct decision to give my constituent the rights that they deserve. At what point will the Scottish Government return to look at these matters for adults who wish to be students but who are caught in a system not of their making? Will the Scottish Government look at that at some point for the benefit of my constituent?
