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 579 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
New Petitions
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Maurice Golden
The aim of the petition, which is to ban ultra-processed food in school meals, is quite a big ask. Nonetheless, the response from the Scottish Government is extremely disappointing. As you have highlighted, convener, the Scottish Government says that an outright ban on ultra-processed food would mean that products such as bread, yoghurts and breakfast cereals would no longer be provided in schools. I cannot fathom how that would be the case, and I am happy to provide the Scottish Government with examples of bread, yoghurts and breakfast cereals that are not ultra-processed and that can be provided.
It would be helpful for the committee to write to the Scottish Government to ask for a percentage of school meals to be provided that are fresh, which is one of the Scottish Government’s priorities. I know what I would consider to be sustainable, but it would be useful for the Scottish Government to define “sustainable produce”. We should, as I have highlighted, ask the Scottish Government whether it believes that there are no alternatives to bread, yoghurt and breakfast cereals that are not ultra-processed. Finally, if the Scottish Government could highlight and put in the public domain the data on how it monitors the local authority provision of school menus, that would at least help to inform consideration of the petition.
In addition, we might want to consider writing to the providers of school meals, given the position that we are in and our need to progress quickly. For example, in my region, Tayside Contracts would be one such provider that we could ask for similar information. It is important that the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament have an overview of school meal provision across Scotland.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
New Petitions
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Maurice Golden
I agree with Mr Russell. However, we should highlight to the petitioner that the Scottish Government intending to introduce a bill in the next Parliament should not be grounds for any solace. There are instances in which the Scottish Government has said that it would introduce a bill in the same session, while it is in government, and has not done so. A commitment for a future Government, when we do not know the make-up of it, should not be grounds for such consideration. Nevertheless, the wider issue of legal aid is incredibly challenging and it needs to be looked at by the next Scottish Government.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Maurice Golden
As per your remarks, convener, the Scottish Government is ultimately committed to meeting the ask of the petitioner, which is a positive result. Therefore, I recommend that we close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Maurice Golden
I recommend that we close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government is of the view that existing legislation takes into account the needs of communities that wish to establish a denominational school, and that the current framework for decision making around the establishment of a denominational school is sufficient.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
New Petitions
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Maurice Golden
I recommend that the committee closes the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that, although the Scottish Government supports the broad aims of the petition, it considers that they can be achieved only in the long term. Furthermore, sentencing is a matter for the courts. Finally, the sentencing and penal policy commission is currently examining the effectiveness of sentencing and community interventions.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Maurice Golden
Given the stage of the parliamentary session, we should close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders on the basis that, as the convener highlighted, the Scottish Government has reiterated its commitment to the Verity house agreement and thereby will not intervene in decisions regarding the hire of public land owned by local authorities.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
New Petitions
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Maurice Golden
I highlight to the committee and to anyone else who is watching that in my voluntary declaration of interests there is an entry that highlights a trip by Conservative Friends of Israel to Israel in 2016.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
New Petitions
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Maurice Golden
The ways in which the legislation is applied by local authorities vary considerably. Anecdotally, I have experienced that, in many cases, it is not enforced at all. Nonetheless, the committee should close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that, although the Scottish Government had considered designating specific roads for pavement parking bans, as the petition highlights, it decided that that would cause confusion and put pavement users at risk. Furthermore, the decision to allow exemptions for narrower roads is one for local authorities. Finally, the parking standards group can address further concerns and clarify issues that are related to the ban and to any exemptions.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Healthcare
Meeting date: 24 September 2025
Maurice Golden
Cabinet secretary, can you update us on the short and long-term investment plans for the NHS estate?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Healthcare
Meeting date: 24 September 2025
Maurice Golden
GPs have complained to me about working out of repurposed cupboards and about patients having to use a car park as a waiting room. Will you update us on the capital funding for primary care infrastructure? What are your thoughts on the creation of not just new GP practices but community hubs that have a GP practice, links to the third sector, pharmacy services and post office and banking facilities, and can operate as a one-stop shop?
