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 11943 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Alison Johnstone
Members, thank you.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Alison Johnstone
The next vote is for Douglas Ross. Only members who wish to cast their vote for Douglas Ross should take part in this vote, by voting yes. No other member should vote. Members who wish to vote for Douglas Ross should vote yes now.
Members voted.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Alison Johnstone
Thank you. We will ensure that that is recorded, Ms McCall.
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: 28 March 2023
Alison Johnstone
I can confirm that your vote has been recorded, Ms Somerville.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Alison Johnstone
As an overall majority has been reached, the candidate selected as the Parliament’s nominee for the position of First Minister is Humza Yousaf. [Applause.] I will now call each of the party leaders to respond.
15:02Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Alison Johnstone
Thank you. Let us hear Mr Ross.
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Alison Johnstone
Thank you. Before we move on to the vote, there will be a short suspension to allow members to access the digital voting system.
14:42 Meeting suspended.14:47 On resuming—
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Alison Johnstone
We move to the vote. [Interruption.] Can we have quiet? Thank you, colleagues.
I remind members that they must vote once only and must use only their yes button in the voting app when voting. If any member records a vote other than a yes vote, we will re-run the voting question. Once the voting for candidates is completed, members who have not voted for a candidate will be given the opportunity to vote to abstain by pressing the yes button.
I will announce the result once all votes have been cast and verified.
The first vote is for Alex Cole-Hamilton. Only members who wish to cast their vote for Alex Cole-Hamilton should take part in this vote, by voting yes. No other members should vote. Members who wish to vote for Alex Cole-Hamilton should vote yes now.
Members voted.
Meeting of the Parliament
Business Motion
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is consideration of business motion S6M-08434, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, setting out a business programme.
Motion moved,
That the Parliament agrees—
(a) the following programme of business—
Tuesday 18 April 2023
2.00 pm Time for Reflection
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
followed by Topical Questions (if selected)
followed by First Minister’s Statement: Scottish Government Priorities
followed by Scottish Government Debate: Cost of Living and Child Poverty
followed by Committee Announcements
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
5.30 pm Decision Time
followed by Members’ Business
Wednesday 19 April 2023
2.00 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.00 pm Portfolio Questions:
Rural Affairs and Islands;
Health and Social Care
followed by Scottish Government Debate: Scotland’s Finances and the Wellbeing Economy
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
followed by Approval of SSIs (if required)
5.00 pm Decision Time
followed by Members’ Business
Thursday 20 April 2023
11.40 am Parliamentary Bureau Motions
11.40 am General Questions
12.00 pm First Minister’s Questions
followed by Members’ Business
2.30 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.30 pm Portfolio Questions:
Social Justice, Housing and Local Government
followed by Scottish Government Debate: Climate Change and the Just Transition
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
5.00 pm Decision Time
followed by Members’ Business
Tuesday 25 April 2023
2.00 pm Time for Reflection
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
followed by Topical Questions (if selected)
followed by Scottish Government Business
followed by Committee Announcements
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
5.00 pm Decision Time
followed by Members’ Business
Wednesday 26 April 2023
2.00 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.00 pm Portfolio Questions:
Constitution, External Affairs and Culture;
Justice and Veterans
followed by Scottish Government Business
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
followed by Approval of SSIs (if required)
5.10 pm Decision Time
followed by Members’ Business
Thursday 27 April 2023
11.40 am Parliamentary Bureau Motions
11.40 am General Questions
12.00 pm First Minister’s Questions
followed by Members’ Business
2.30 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
2.30 pm Portfolio Questions:
Education and Skills
followed by Scottish Government Business
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
5.00 pm Decision Time
(b) that, for the purposes of Portfolio Questions in the week beginning 17 April 2023, in rule 13.7.3, after the word “except” the words “to the extent to which the Presiding Officer considers that the questions are on the same or similar subject matter or” are inserted.—[George Adam]
Motion agreed to.
Meeting of the Parliament
Parliamentary Bureau Motions
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Alison Johnstone
The next item of business is consideration of five Parliamentary Bureau motions. I ask George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, to move motions S6M-08435 to S6M-08438, on approval of Scottish statutory instruments, and S6M-08439, on the designation of a lead committee.
Motions moved,
That the Parliament agrees that the Budget (Scotland) Act 2022 Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2023 [draft] be approved.
That the Parliament agrees that the Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003 (Designation of Participating Countries) (Scotland) Order 2023 [draft] be approved.
That the Parliament agrees that the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 Amendment Regulations 2023 [draft] be approved.
That the Parliament agrees that the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Incidental Provision) Regulations 2023 [draft] be approved.
That the Parliament agrees that the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee be designated as lead committee in consideration of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill at Stage 1.—[George Adam]
