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 12242 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Alison Johnstone
The concludes the selection of First Minister.
Meeting of the Parliament
Motion without Notice
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Alison Johnstone
I am minded to accept a motion without notice, under rule 11.2.4 of standing orders, that decision time be brought forward to now. I invite the Minister for Parliamentary Business to move the motion.
Motion moved,
That, under Rule 11.2.4, Decision Time be brought forward to 4.06 pm.—[George Adam]
Motion agreed to.
Meeting of the Parliament
Business Motion
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Alison Johnstone
The question is, that amendment S6M-13118.1, in the name of Douglas Ross, which seeks to amend motion S6M-13118, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, on changes to the business programme, be agreed to. Are we agreed?
Members: No.
Meeting of the Parliament
Business Motion
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Alison Johnstone
The next question is, that motion S6M-13118, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, on changes to the business programme, be agreed to.
Motion agreed to,
That the Parliament agrees to the following revisions to the programme of business for—
(a) Tuesday 7 May 2024—
delete
followed by Stage 1 Debate: Welfare of Dogs (Scotland) Bill
and insert
followed by Personal Statement: Humza Yousaf
3.00 pm Selection of First Minister
(b) Wednesday 8 May 2024—
delete
2.00 pm Portfolio Questions:
Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands;
NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care
followed by Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Business
and insert
2.00 pm Portfolio Questions:
Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands;
NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care;
Social Justice
followed by Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Debate: Implementing the Cass Review in Scotland
followed by Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Debate: Supporting Scotland’s Colleges
delete
5.10 pm Decision Time
and insert
5.35 pm Decision Time
(c) Thursday 9 May 2024—
delete
2.30 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.30 pm Portfolio Questions:
Social Justice
followed by Ministerial Statement: 2024-25 Finance Update Following UK Government Spring Budget
followed by Scottish Government Business
and insert
2.00 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.00 pm Appointment of Scottish Ministers
followed by Legislative Consent Motion: Data Protection and Digital Information Bill - UK Legislation
followed by Stage 1 Debate: Welfare of Dogs (Scotland) Bill
Meeting of the Parliament
Personal Statement
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is a personal statement by Humza Yousaf. There should be no interventions or interruptions.
14:39Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is the selection of the Parliament’s nominee as First Minister. A note explaining the procedures that will be followed this afternoon has been made available to members.
I have received four valid nominations for the selection of the Parliament’s nominee for First Minister, which I will now announce in alphabetical order. They are Alex Cole-Hamilton, Douglas Ross, Anas Sarwar and John Swinney. I will ask each nominee to speak in support of their candidacy for up to five minutes. There should be no interventions or interruptions.
After the nominees have spoken, members will be asked to cast their vote for their preferred candidate. A separate vote will be called for each candidate, and members can vote only once. Once all voting has been completed, any member who has not yet voted will be invited to cast a vote to abstain. There will be a short suspension while the result is verified, and I will then announce the results of voting.
A candidate will be elected if an overall majority is obtained. If no majority is obtained, the candidate or candidates with the smallest number of votes will be eliminated. I ask members to note that, if we have a vote between only two candidates, all that is required is a simple majority for one of the candidates to be elected. Members might wish to record an abstention; no account of those votes will be taken in establishing whether a simple majority has been achieved. We will then proceed to a further round of voting.
15:01Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Alison Johnstone
The vote is closed.
The next vote is for Anas Sarwar. Only members who wish to cast their vote for Anas Sarwar should take part in this vote, by voting yes. No other members should vote. Members who wish to vote for Anas Sarwar should vote yes now.
Members voted.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Alison Johnstone
Thank you, Ms Gougeon. We will ensure that your vote is recorded.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Alison Johnstone
Thank you, Ms Haughey. I can confirm that your vote was recorded.
That concludes the votes for all candidates. The next vote is for any members who have not yet voted and who wish to record an abstention. Members who wish to abstain should press their yes button now.
Members voted.
Meeting of the Parliament
Business Motion
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is consideration of business motion S6M-13118, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, on changes to the business programme.
Motion moved,
That the Parliament agrees to the following revisions to the programme of business for—
(a) Tuesday 7 May 2024—
delete
followed by Stage 1 Debate: Welfare of Dogs (Scotland) Bill
and insert
followed by Personal Statement: Humza Yousaf
3.00 pm Selection of First Minister
(b) Wednesday 8 May 2024—
delete
2.00 pm Portfolio Questions:
Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands;
NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care
followed by Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Business
and insert
2.00 pm Portfolio Questions:
Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands;
NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care;
Social Justice
followed by Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Debate: Implementing the Cass Review in Scotland
followed by Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Debate: Supporting Scotland’s Colleges
delete
5.10 pm Decision Time
and insert
5.35 pm Decision Time
(c) Thursday 9 May 2024—
delete
2.30 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.30 pm Portfolio Questions:
Social Justice
followed by Ministerial Statement: 2024-25 Finance Update Following UK Government Spring Budget
followed by Scottish Government Business
and insert
2.00 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.00 pm Appointment of Scottish Ministers
followed by Legislative Consent Motion: Data Protection and Digital Information Bill - UK Legislation
followed by Stage 1 Debate: Welfare of Dogs (Scotland) Bill—[George Adam.]
