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 2599 contributions
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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 29 January 2026
Graham Simpson
As is set out in paragraph 43 of the delegated powers memorandum on the bill, it was my view that the power to make regulations as originally drafted in the bill would have permitted regulations to be made on campaign expenditure. However, I followed the stage 1 evidence on the issue, including the concerns that the bill made no reference to campaigning or expenditure.
I therefore support amendments 69 and 75. The amendments will put it beyond doubt that the powers to make regulations under section 21 include the power to make specific provision on campaigning matters in promotion of the outcome of a recall process, which includes expenditure incurred in relation to that campaigning.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 29 January 2026
Graham Simpson
I will just quickly say that I support amendment 76.
Amendment 76 agreed to.
Section 21, as amended, agreed to.
After section 21
Amendment 77 moved—[Graeme Dey]—and agreed to.
Section 22 agreed to.
Section 23—Meaning of expressions relevant to the criminal-offence ground
Amendment 78 moved—[Graham Simpson]—and agreed to.
Amendment 121 not moved.
Section 23, as amended, agreed to.
Section 24—General interpretative rules
Amendment 122 not moved.
Amendments 79 to 83 moved—[Graham Simpson]—and agreed to.
Section 24, as amended, agreed to.
Section 25—Removal if imprisoned or detained for period from 6 months to one year
Amendments 98 to 100, 123 and 101 not moved.
Amendment 84 moved—[Mark Griffin].
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 29 January 2026
Graham Simpson
I thank Alex Cole-Hamilton for giving me some of his time yesterday to discuss the issue. As he mentioned, I raised the issue of staff, and I think that that got him thinking. He is really on to something—he has raised a really important issue that should be tackled. I am pleased to hear that the Government will consult on this and on other matters.
I do not think—and I think that Alex Cole-Hamilton accepts this—that we can deal with the issue in any great detail in the bill, but I look forward to seeing something at stage 3. I therefore urge him not to press his amendment.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 29 January 2026
Graham Simpson
No. Mine is a one-step process, which I will go on to explain. It is much simpler than the original proposal, which had two stages and which was complicated, difficult to understand and expensive. The new proposal is one step, which I will explain as we go on. As I said, it mirrors what the Senedd, or Welsh Government, bill is doing. That reflects the committee’s concerns.
The MSP would be replaced. The seat would remain vacant if there was no one left on the list or if the individual was elected as an independent.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 29 January 2026
Graham Simpson
Yes. We would move away from the two-step process. The new model would begin in the same way as was originally envisaged, with one of the recall conditions being met. The Presiding Officer would then issue a recall poll initiating notice so that arrangements could be made for a regional recall poll.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 29 January 2026
Graham Simpson
That is true.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 29 January 2026
Graham Simpson
Yes.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 29 January 2026
Graham Simpson
Through this suite of amendments, I am trying to simplify the regional element, which was a big sticking point for the committee—and rightly so. The purpose of these amendments is to address that point, and that is what I have endeavoured to do. The fact that we have the electoral system that we have makes all of this tricky, but we have to come up with something. It is never going to be perfect, but that is why I have gone down this route.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 29 January 2026
Graham Simpson
The Scottish Government’s position suggests that various parts of the poll process could be added to the bill, but the bill would immediately need to qualify those by stating that they are subject to conditions and constraints in regulations. A similar approach, which I have taken, is to state that the process will be set out in regulations while stating—as I have done in the bill—that there are key features of the process that the regulations must specify.
I am open to including more detail in the bill at stage 3 if members—particularly the minister—will specify what those details should be. I suggest that amendment 65 be agreed to, on the understanding that further changes to the section will be made at stage 3. Given the minister’s general support for the bill, I would welcome an agreement at this stage to work with me on wording for amendment 65 that the Government would be satisfied with and that it would support at stage 3. We need to reach general agreement on the bill.
The minister can intervene if he wants to, but, if he does not wish to do so, we can have a chat after the meeting. However, given the Government’s commitment at stage 1 to support the general principles of the proposed recall process, it would help to inform parliamentarians if we had an assurance before stage 3 that the Government is content with the drafting and the policy that would lie behind such drafting.
If amendments 64 to 66 are not agreed to at stage 2, I am concerned that parliamentarians will come to the amended bill at stage 3 with a key element of the process missing. That could lead to confusion, whereas I hope that the focus at stage 3 will be on finalising the details of the bill.
I can ramble on for a bit, to allow the minister to intervene.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 29 January 2026
Graham Simpson
I agree with every word that the minister has said. We cannot remove someone from being an MSP when they are not guilty or when they have not been convicted of something. That would be the effect of these amendments. I will leave it there, convener. I agree with the minister.
