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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Public Audit Committee
“Fiscal sustainability and reform in Scotland”
Meeting date: 5 December 2024
Graham Simpson
It is called a medium-term plan, so what period would you expect that to cover?
Public Audit Committee
“Fiscal sustainability and reform in Scotland”
Meeting date: 5 December 2024
Graham Simpson
If we think the issue through, given the timescales, we will be getting fairly close to the next Scottish Parliament election, at which there could be a change of Government. The next Government could have a different strategy. Is there a risk that, by leaving it so late—if I can describe it in that way—the strategy could be overtaken by the election? We might have to produce a new one.
Meeting of the Parliament
Beer and Pub Sector
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Graham Simpson
I congratulate Craig Hoy on securing today’s debate. He convenes what is probably the most popular cross-party group in the Parliament—it does not struggle to get members to attend its meetings. That is possibly because many of its meetings are held not in the Parliament but at other venues—let us put it that way—that have certain attractions. Another attraction is that we get to spend time with Mr Hoy. I was pleased to hear that he will be doing a tour of Scotland and will be coming to my region. If he lets me know the kind of establishment that he likes to frequent, I am sure that we can line something up.
Presiding Officer, you may have seen pictures of a number of my colleagues pulling pints over the weekend. I was not one of them, as I was busy this weekend. However, I have quite a history in the licensed trade. My grandparents ran working men’s clubs in the north of England. When I first started work as a journalist, I lodged in a village pub. What a great place for a young journalist to be—a pub! Pubs are where we got most of our stories. It was then that I developed a love of real ale, which I have had ever since.
I recently went to a very well-known music venue in Glasgow and, much as I enjoyed the music, I was left somewhat traumatised after having a very bad pint of beer. It was probably one of the worst pints that I have ever had and I am still suffering the taste—I can taste it now. It was really bad, but it also reminded me of why I love real ale and good pubs as much as I do.
There are some good independent brewers and small breweries out there. I look forward to visiting one of the brewers in my region, the Outlandish Brewing Company, which is in the Motherwell area, and perhaps sampling some of its products such as Beamer, Belter, Sonsie and Swally—great names. I look forward to having a go at some of those.
I think that the report is excellent and it is an example of what cross-party groups should be doing. It shines a light on the value of the sector. It is not just about figures, although there are some really good figures; in my region, there are 346 pubs that support nearly 5,000 jobs. The sector’s total GVA is £180 million. I could go on. It is a really valuable sector. However, as Craig Hoy said, when it comes to pubs, and local community pubs in particular, the important thing is what they give to the community.
Meeting of the Parliament
Beer and Pub Sector
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Graham Simpson
The minister is right to mention the number of small independent brewers, which has gone up over the decades. However, the trend now seems to have reversed—for instance, this year alone, there has been a net loss of 94 small independent breweries in the UK and 13 in Scotland. Is that a concern to the minister?
Meeting of the Parliament
Beer and Pub Sector
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Graham Simpson
Liz Smith is absolutely right about that. The report that we are talking about is from the cross-party group on beer and pubs, but pubs offer so much more than just beer. Gin is a great example—there are some fantastic local gins being produced in Scotland—and, of course, we cannot forget about whisky, which is so vital to the Scottish economy.
I have spoken for five minutes, but I could speak for a lot longer because it is such an important topic.
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2024”
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Graham Simpson
My question follows on from that. I am interested in how much flexibility individual colleges have in delivering for the skills in their areas. It is important that, through speaking to employers, colleges can identify what skills are required now and what skills will be needed in the future, so that they can develop courses that are appropriate to those regional needs. The situation in Lanarkshire, for instance, is different from the situation in the Highlands, so you would expect colleges in Lanarkshire to deliver different courses from those in the Highlands. How much flexibility do individual colleges have to do that?
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2024”
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Graham Simpson
Good morning. We run the risk of this meeting being all doom and gloom, but it is not, of course, all doom and gloom in the college sector. Mr Boyle mentioned WorldSkills UK, but he did not mention that New College Lanarkshire won the WorldSkills UK national finals when they were held in Manchester. That is a shining example of how a college in Scotland can beat the rest in the United Kingdom.
If we can start on that bright note—you are itching to get in, Mr Boyle, to explain why you failed to mention that.
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2024”
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Graham Simpson
New College Lanarkshire?
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2024”
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Graham Simpson
That is obviously good news in my region, but other colleges elsewhere are still on that list. Have their positions got worse or better since we last explored the issue?
Public Audit Committee
“Scotland’s colleges 2024”
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Graham Simpson
Adjusted operating deficits—does that mean the deficits are worse or better?
