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 2546 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Bob Doris
You have just got your point on the record, so job done.
I should say that I am neither supporting nor denouncing the 4 per cent policy, but a reduction of 30 to 50 per cent seems at odds with the Climate Change Committee and its recommendation of a 6 per cent reduction. What do you think is a realistic reduction? I am not asking for the reduction that you would wish for but the reduction that you think would be realistic, practical and deliverable. That is at the heart of the issue.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Bob Doris
That was helpful, and it was important to put that on the record. However, I do not want to misinterpret your comments, Professor Davis. Are you suggesting that, although you would like the target to go much further, you think that 6 per cent is a reasonable and achievable reduction?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Draft Climate Change Plan
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Bob Doris
I am looking at the witnesses on the monitors, too. Does anyone want to come in? Perhaps someone who has not had the opportunity to contribute might wish to.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
United Kingdom Child Poverty Strategy
Meeting date: 18 December 2025
Bob Doris
That is helpful. As there are no more questions, I thank the cabinet secretary and Julie Humphreys for their support of our evidence session this morning. That concludes our public business, and I move the meeting into private.
09:37 Meeting continued in private until 10:56.Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
United Kingdom Child Poverty Strategy
Meeting date: 18 December 2025
Bob Doris
I will follow up on the two-child limit later, so I will not explore that further.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
United Kingdom Child Poverty Strategy
Meeting date: 18 December 2025
Bob Doris
Our next item of business is an evidence session on the recently published UK child poverty strategy, “Our Children, Our Future—Tackling Child Poverty.”
Before I begin, I wish to say a few words. I wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland on 4 November to invite him to give oral evidence, either in person or online, on the UK Government’s child poverty strategy. A number of follow-up emails were sent seeking a response to our invitation. Last week, the secretary of state’s office confirmed that he was unable to give oral evidence and that he would provide written evidence instead. It is disappointing to receive a response so late.
Although we welcome written evidence, members will not have the opportunity to ask the secretary of state about the content of that evidence. We are keen to work with the UK Government on this important issue and I hope that, going forward, we can work together to eradicate child poverty in Scotland.
With that on the record, I welcome to the meeting Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, and Julie Humphreys, director of tackling child poverty and social justice from the Scottish Government. I thank you both for joining us and invite the cabinet secretary to make some brief opening remarks.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
United Kingdom Child Poverty Strategy
Meeting date: 18 December 2025
Bob Doris
Thank you, cabinet secretary. There was a lot in that opening statement and I will begin with the positives. As you indicated, the rate of child poverty in Scotland has been falling but you have characterised the UK strategy as broadly stabilising the current very high level of child poverty found elsewhere in the UK, rather than driving it down. You suggested that there was positive and constructive engagement when engagement with the UK Government and UK task force began in October 2024. Can you say a little more about the positive and constructive engagement at that time?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
United Kingdom Child Poverty Strategy
Meeting date: 18 December 2025
Bob Doris
You have described the engagement that did happen as being “transactional” but it is good that engagement took place. Did that happen at both ministerial and official level?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
United Kingdom Child Poverty Strategy
Meeting date: 18 December 2025
Bob Doris
Cabinet secretary, we are approaching the end of our evidence session, but I might just finish off where we started, which was on the on-going dialogue with the UK Government. For whatever reason, that appeared to dry up and the bilateral discussions did not happen.
What is your preference, cabinet secretary? Is it for a four-nation approach to tackling child poverty, so that we can draw on the experience of Wales and Northern Ireland, share best practice and have open and honest discussions about what various Governments think works and does not work? If there are disagreements, that is okay, but it is important to be clear about your preferred approach. Is it about sharing best practice and continuing that conversation, or was it the bilateral approach suggested by the UK Government that did not happen in the end? What would you like to see happen, cabinet secretary?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
United Kingdom Child Poverty Strategy
Meeting date: 18 December 2025
Bob Doris
I will roll my next two questions into one because I know that my colleagues wish to come in. The Scottish Government advocated some policies to the UK Government as being able to make a real difference. Did you see any of those policies reflected in the strategy published by the UK Government? Are you still in the dark about why the dialogue suddenly stopped?
