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 11761 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Scotland’s Economy
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Alison Johnstone
You must conclude, Mr Smyth.
Meeting of the Parliament
Scotland’s Economy
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Alison Johnstone
Let us hear Mr Brown.
Meeting of the Parliament
Scotland’s Economy
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Alison Johnstone
That concludes the debate on growing Scotland’s economy.
Meeting of the Parliament
Scotland’s Economy
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Alison Johnstone
I call Rhoda Grant to wind up the debate.
17:05Meeting of the Parliament
Business Motions
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is consideration of business motion S6M-12471, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, on an extension to stage 1 of a bill.
Motion moved,
That the Parliament agrees that consideration of the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill at stage 1 be extended to 26 April 2024.—[George Adam]
Motion agreed to.
Meeting of the Parliament
Parliamentary Bureau Motions
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is consideration of seven Parliamentary Bureau motions. I ask George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, to move motions S6M-12472 to S6M-12476, on approval of Scottish statutory instruments, S6M-12477, on committee remits, and S6M-12478, on substitution on committees.
Motions moved,
That the Parliament agrees that the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Expiry of Section 10: Extension) Regulations 2024 [draft] be approved.
That the Parliament agrees that the Rent Adjudication (Temporary Modifications) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 [draft] be approved.
That the Parliament agrees that the Scottish Landfill Tax (Standard Rate and Lower Rate) Order 2024 (SSI 2024/60) be approved.
That the Parliament agrees that the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) Amendment Order 2024 [draft] be approved.
That the Parliament agrees that the Local Authority (Capital Finance and Accounting) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024 [draft] be approved.
That the Parliament agrees to the following revisions to the remits of committees—
Name of Committee: Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Remit: To consider and report on matters falling within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition, with the exception of matters relating to just transition; on matters relating to land reform, natural resources and peatland, Scottish Land Commission, Crown Estate Scotland, and Royal Botanic Garden within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands; and on matters relating to energy within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy.
New remit: To consider and report on matters falling within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy, with the exception of matters relating to wellbeing economy, and just transition; and on matters relating to land reform, natural resources and peatland, Scottish Land Commission, Crown Estate Scotland, and Royal Botanic Garden within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands.
Name of Committee: Economy and Fair Work Committee
Remit: To consider and report on matters falling within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy with the exception of matters relating to energy; and on matters relating to just transition within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition.
New remit: To consider and report on matters falling within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy, with the exception of matters relating to net zero and energy.
That the Parliament agrees that Fulton MacGregor be appointed as the Scottish National Party substitute on the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee.—[George Adam]
Meeting of the Parliament
Decision Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Alison Johnstone
The result of the division on amendment S6M-12455.2, in the name of Neil Gray, is: For 63, Against 51, Abstentions 0.
Amendment agreed to.
Meeting of the Parliament
Decision Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Alison Johnstone
The amendment in the name of Sandesh Gulhane falls.
The next question is, that motion S6M-12455, in the name of Jackie Baillie, on bringing down NHS waiting lists, as amended, be agreed to. Are we agreed?
Members: No.
Meeting of the Parliament
Decision Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Alison Johnstone
The result of the division on motion S6M-12455, in the name of Jackie Baillie, on bringing down NHS waiting lists, as amended, is: For 63, Against 51, Abstentions 0.
Motion, as amended, agreed to,
That the Parliament recognises the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on health service waiting times across the UK, and around the world; commends the dedicated NHS staff who work to provide the best care possible; believes that all long waits are regrettable and welcomes the progress in delivering a significant reduction for the longest waits; welcomes the opening of two National Treatment Centres within the last 12 months, with a further two centres opening in the coming months, which will provide capacity for an additional 20,000 procedures each year; notes that the Scottish Budget provides over £19.5 billion for health and social care, ensuring a real-terms uplift for the NHS in the face of UK Government austerity; acknowledges that, without the distinct and progressive approach to income tax in the Budget, the NHS and other public services would have £1.5 billion less funding; understands that the UK Government’s decision to cut the Scottish Government’s capital budget by £1.3 billion in real terms by 2027-28 has a direct impact on health infrastructure projects; believes that the £20 billion that the UK Government will lose as a result of its decision to cut national insurance should instead have been invested in NHS services and in infrastructure investment, and understands that the share of Barnett consequential funding that Scotland has lost as a result is around £1.6 billion, and believes that, in order to recover from the combined impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and UK Government economic mismanagement, reform and innovation across the health service is required.
Meeting of the Parliament
Decision Time
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Alison Johnstone
I remind members that, if the amendment in the name of Màiri McAllan is agreed to, the amendment in the name of Murdo Fraser will fall.
The next question is, that amendment S6M-12457.2, in the name of Màiri McAllan, which seeks to amend motion S6M-12457, in the name of Daniel Johnson, on growing Scotland’s economy, be agreed to. Are we agreed?
Members: No.
