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.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
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.
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.
There are two types of keyword search:
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.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
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:
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.
Displaying 5973 contributions
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
Okay. I am slightly concerned, because it was those specifications for the vehicles and the passengers that drove the overall length of the ship at 102m, the weight at 900 tonnes, and the demand for 6.5 knots. It appears to me that, if you change all of that, you might have changed the whole spec of the ship, which to me then raises questions about the whole process of tendering.
I understand that you have to respond to issues, but we are getting a more expensive boat with fewer passengers, fewer cars and fewer lorries on it, and it is still as big as the original size. There are so many moving parts in there—
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
I accept that fully—there might not always be 127 cars. However, the maximum that was wanted in the original spec was 1,000 passengers, 127 cars and 16 lorries. If we do not have the ability to have that in any permutation as far as passengers are concerned and if we are limited with regard to cars, too, islanders might feel a little bit peeved.
I will come back with more questions at the end of the session. Lots of other committee members want to ask questions, and I will start with Sarah Boyack.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
You are being very circumspect, and I am going to press you slightly. Do you think that because the yard was in receivership, contractors had the ability to call the shots, rather than Tim Hair?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
So there were framework contracts—his contract was a framework contract and he could pull down money when he did work.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
If I remember rightly, the figure was roughly £25.9 million. Is that correct?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
Okay. I will butt out and go back to Mark Ruskell. I am sorry for jumping in, but I wanted those figures.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
I want to push you a wee bit on that before I go to Bob Doris, so that I understand it. If you invest in the yard and make things easier to do, your prices could be cheaper for the contracts that you bid for because the approach would be more efficient and worth while.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
The Government would also have to look very carefully at state aid rules relating to investing in yards that bid for contracts. That becomes an issue. We have struggled to understand that as a committee, and I am sure that the Government will want to lay that out.
I am looking around the committee to see whether there are any further questions before I bring in Graham Simpson. I do not see that there are any. I will not say that the floor is yours, Graham, but you can ask some questions.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
The figures go straight to the group, which takes them to the cabinet secretary.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
So there is just one filter.