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 2716 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Motion without Notice
Meeting date: 20 December 2022
Graham Simpson
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I have a similar point to make. I wish to understand the effect of the result of the vote on motion S6M-07325. Does it mean that any member who wishes to take part in a debate on an amendment, which would be the normal state of affairs, will now not be able to do so? If that were the case, that would be an outrage to democracy and scrutiny.
Meeting of the Parliament
Business Motion
Meeting date: 20 December 2022
Graham Simpson
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I completely agree with everything that has been said by Mr Burnett, Mr Balfour and my other colleagues about today’s proceedings.
Colleagues have now had a chance to read my amendment to the business motion, which calls for a statement tomorrow on the strategic transport projects review 2. That was issued by the Scottish Government nearly two weeks ago, at the end of the week, but no parliamentary time has been allocated to it so far. There has been no debate and there have been no questions—nothing—yet this eagerly awaited document could have far-reaching consequences.
As a Parliament, we should expect to have statements on important matters such as this one as soon as the documents are issued. There is simply no good reason for the Government to avoid being questioned on STPR2—unless, of course, it does not fancy the undoubtedly tough grilling that it would get from me and others.
To say that STPR2 is a damp squib is a massive understatement. People who live in the south-west who were hoping to get some good news on the upgrading of the A75 and the A77 are still waiting. If people want to find out when the A9 will be fully dualled between Perth and Inverness, the document is not for them, I am afraid. We would think that it might have been.
There are lots of warm words, but they offer cold comfort for communities the length and breadth of Scotland. There is nothing in the STPR2 for people who rely on Scotland’s ageing ferry fleet. There are plenty of ifs, buts and maybes, but no firm commitments to build bridges and tunnels or improve ports. There is no ferry replacement plan. We must wait for that, I suppose.
There are the usual platitudes about wanting to cut car miles by a fifth within seven years, but just how that is going to be achieved is anyone’s guess. People will certainly not discover the answers from the document.
On railways, we have conflicting statements. I quote the document:
“The plan includes the following statement in relation to transport: ‘By 2032 ... we will have decarbonised our passenger railways’”.
However, it goes on to say that, by 2032,
“Scotland’s passenger rail services”
will be
“considerably decarbonised, with just a few years to go until they are fully decarbonised”.
That is not the same thing.
The point is that all of that gives MSPs much to chew over, but with no chance to question the minister. Instead, we have the farce of this week. We have been through that already, with a potential midnight sitting tonight and another late one tomorrow. We should be having statements on things such as STPR2 and dealing with important matters such as that, which affect all our constituents and all our constituencies.
I move amendment S6M-07320.2, to insert after “3.15 pm Portfolio Questions: Rural Affairs and Islands; Health and Social Care; Social Justice, Housing and Local Government”:
“followed by Ministerial Statement: Strategic Transport Projects Review 2”.
Meeting of the Parliament
Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
Meeting date: 20 December 2022
Graham Simpson
Will the member take an intervention?
Meeting of the Parliament
Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
Meeting date: 20 December 2022
Graham Simpson
I have five amendments in the group; they are numbered from 1 to 5 because I was first out of the traps when lodging amendments. I hope that members in the chamber will bear with me while I explain the background to the amendments.
I lodged some amendments at stage 2 that were aimed at trying to tease out what exactly is meant by
“living in the acquired gender”.
It troubles me that, if the bill goes through, a person could simply say that they have changed gender without needing to prove that anything in their life had changed. At stage 2, I explained that I could find no explanation for what
“living in the acquired gender”
means, and I still do not know. It surely has to mean something.
If I am to say that I am a woman, common sense dictates that something must have changed in my life, but no one can say what that thing, or those things, might be. At stage 2, I tried to say that the Government should set out in regulations what changes would be considered evidence that a new gender had been acquired, but the cabinet secretary was having none of it.
I will quote her quite extensively. She said:
“To say that someone is ‘living in the acquired gender’ means that they are living their daily life in a gender that is different from that which was recorded at birth. In the context of the bill, that is the gender that they are living in when they make an application. Applicants will have to make a statutory declaration that they have lived in their acquired gender for a minimum of three months—six months, for 16 and 17-year-olds—before applying, and that they intend to do so for the rest of their lives. The aim of the bill is to improve the process for those who apply for legal gender recognition, as the current system can have an adverse impact on applicants due, in part, to the burdensome evidence requirements. The bill establishes a more straightforward process that is based on statutory declaration.”
I was still no clearer, but she continued:
“As I indicated earlier, the requirement is not about looking or dressing in a certain way but about the ways in which a person may demonstrate their lived gender to others.”
Oh, right. How might one do that, then?
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 15 December 2022
Graham Simpson
When are we going to see the national smart travel card that the SNP promised us more than six years ago?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Economic Outlook
Meeting date: 14 December 2022
Graham Simpson
Okay. John Swinney is making a statement tomorrow. If you were to speak to him today, what is the one thing that you would ask him to announce tomorrow?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Economic Outlook
Meeting date: 14 December 2022
Graham Simpson
I am going to ask another question about inflation, and I will start with Professor Chadha. First, I congratulate you on managing to get the word “hipster” into a recent report that you wrote. Well done for that.
The Bank of England published its monetary policy report recently, and it predicted that inflation could fall to 1.4 per cent by the end of 2024. That is quite a dramatic drop. What is that based on, and is there any prospect of it actually happening?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Economic Outlook
Meeting date: 14 December 2022
Graham Simpson
That is fair enough. Although inflation is the big issue, you are saying that we need some inflation. We do not want to choke off inflation altogether because that could have harmful effects.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Scotland’s Economic Outlook
Meeting date: 14 December 2022
Graham Simpson
I will widen the question for the other two witnesses. How confident are you that the economy in general can recover in the next year to 18 months, say? I will ask Susan Murray that first, and then Emma Congreve. Can you give us any Christmas cheer? Everyone seems to be a bit gloomy at the moment.
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 14 December 2022
Graham Simpson
Well, that was really not any kind of answer. The Auditor General said the following about Ferguson Marine:
“During 2021-22, the Scottish Government wrote off £52 million from the capital value. The value of vessels 801 and 802 in the Consolidated Accounts at 31 March 2022 was £78 million.”
So far, the cost of building the vessels has been well in excess of £200 million for vessels that are worth £78 million, and that gap is only going to get wider. Does the minister believe that that is value for money?
