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 2447 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 November 2025
Bob Doris
I understand and appreciate that, but I just wondered whether you had an example of a public body saying that it was working on sustainable development in what it does, whereas your view was that what it was doing was actually contrary to the definition in the bill. I am genuinely not trying to put words in your mouth, but I think that what you are saying is that it is more about pushing the issue up the political agenda than about the definition itself.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 November 2025
Bob Doris
Of course. I am not known for speaking quietly—[Interruption.] There is no need to laugh at that, Mr Stewart, thank you very much.
It was pointed out to me that the policy memorandum refers to the definition of “sustainable development” as an overarching definition. I am wondering what that would apply to. Would it apply to individual public bodies, which would have to have due regard to it, or would it apply to all public policy and to every piece of legislation that goes through the Parliament? What is meant by “overarching”?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 November 2025
Bob Doris
We will check the evidence, just in case I have reflected that inaccurately, which is certainly not my intention. We will reflect on your comments.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 November 2025
Bob Doris
I am just smiling, Ms Boyack. I have inadvertently afforded you the opportunity to make a closing statement, which might be no bad thing. I think that the committee will fully take on board all the points that you have made.
It is worth noting that the committee has not had any opportunity to scrutinise what is or is not happening in other countries, so we cannot really make any judgment on whether those initiatives are effective. We were able to take a very small amount of evidence that was indirect, via Scottish organisations, on what is happening in Wales. One thing that came through from that—members of the committee will have their own views on this—is that the new commissioner in Wales focused minds rather than having any particular direct impact. There was a cultural change; that came through quite strongly in evidence. We have to deliberate on that as a committee—it is important to say that. We also have to deliberate on whether the reform of the national performance framework and embedding the national outcomes across public bodies will be an effective way to push all this forward.
However, irrespective of whether the bill progresses, your passionate delivery this morning has already dramatically raised the issues up the agenda in Scotland, and I think that the committee would like to thank you for that.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 November 2025
Bob Doris
I am sorry if my memory is failing me, but I think that the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland’s office said that it did not agree with the definition of wellbeing. I think that I have got that right. How would you reflect on that?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 November 2025
Bob Doris
I genuinely was not suggesting anything, Sarah. I was only reflecting that I think we have heard evidence that a rigid definition of wellbeing might not be desirable. I will correct the record if I am getting wrong what the office of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland said, but is the concern about the definition valid?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 November 2025
Bob Doris
You have said several times, understandably, that the proposal is not all about investigations but is also about the softer powers and influence that a commissioner could have. The bill allows the commissioner to
“take such steps as the Commissioner considers appropriate”
when seeking to resolve a matter without recourse to an investigation. What kinds of steps were you thinking about?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 November 2025
Bob Doris
Do you expect a new commissioner to be able to keep a watching eye on all 131 public bodies?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 November 2025
Bob Doris
That was helpful.
You have been following and, indeed, participating in the committee’s evidence-taking sessions, so none of the questions that we will ask is likely to be surprising. I would suggest that, whether we are talking about a commissioner or a new person within an existing commissioner’s office, one way of dealing with some of the bureaucracy around this might be to embed a new commissioner, or an individual with lead responsibility for all of this, within an existing commissioner’s office to make the process much more efficient. I am thinking, for example, of the land reform legislation that has just been passed, in which will see the land and communities commissioner being embedded in the Scottish Land Commission. Have you given any thought to that sort of approach?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 20 November 2025
Bob Doris
Our next item of business is the final stage 1 evidence session on the Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill. I welcome to the meeting Sarah Boyack MSP, who is the member in charge of the bill; Sean Taheny and Roz Thomson, who are from the non-Government bills unit; and Caroline Mair, who is a solicitor from legal services at the Scottish Parliament. Thank you all for joining us.
I invite Sarah Boyack to make some brief opening remarks.
