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
I am nervous that people from the Economy and Fair Work Committee might be listening. We are probably right at the margins of where we can be as far as the scrutiny of 801 and 802 and the yard’s future goes. Although I find it very interesting, I do not want the convener of the Economy and Fair Work Committee breathing down my neck. Bear that in mind, committee members, although I will take the pain if I have to.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
You have asked the question. I am not going to stop you doing it. I will just take the pain from the convener of the Economy and Fair Work Committee.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
I am happy for you to go ahead.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
The yard has learned lessons from these very Rolls-Royce ferries, as I think you described them, as you have gone along. I think that you came into the yard on 1 February 2022, which probably seems a lifetime ago. I am concerned that, from about 2019, not a lot of learning appears to have happened from the errors on 801. Do you have a comment on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
Thank you very much for attending.
I will briefly pause the meeting. I ask members to be back at 11:25 so that we can complete the next bit in public and then go into private.
11:16 Meeting suspended.Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
Unless other members have comments, I will move to a substantive question. Is the committee content that the provisions that are set out in the notification should be made in the proposed UK statutory instrument on retained EU law?
Members indicated agreement.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Edward Mountain
We will write to the Scottish Government to that effect, including with that a question asking it to clarify that there is no divergence, as per its legislation regarding the EU.
That concludes the public part of the meeting and we will move into private session.
11:30 Meeting continued in private until 11:53.Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Edward Mountain
I agree with Rachael Hamilton. I think that the minister referred to Alex Hogg, who is the chairman of the SGA. He is a man with huge experience of these matters, and he has supported the courses. Including such people in the consultation on how the courses should be drawn up seems to be logical. That is why amendments 180 and 16 seem entirely relevant to me.
I would be happy to let the minister in to give me some guidance on amendments 13 and 15. If not, I will push them to a vote.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Edward Mountain
I am sorry, convener; I know that I should speak through the chair. I said that I understand that the number of days of courses, which amendment 13 deals with, is difficult for the minister and that amendment 15, which is also on the number of days of courses, is difficult. However, I would like to examine with the minister amendment 14, which is to do with reasonable cost, to ensure that the cost of training courses is not too onerous and does not preclude people from taking part in them.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Edward Mountain
The point of amendment 17 is to ensure that the bill complies with the grounds on which it was set out. The bill is intended to deal with upland moorland management and grouse shooting, so the rationale behind amendment 17 is to remove other birds that are not part of upland moorland management or grouse shooting, meaning that other game birds could not be added to the list of birds that are controlled under the bill unless they have reached a level of scarcity resulting in their being on the amber or red list.
The reason for doing that is that the industry is extremely concerned that, at a later date, additions will be made to the bill to ban the legal pastime of game shooting, which I understand some people are not in favour of. If the minister is truly clear on the reasons for the bill, he will support amendment 17 so that there would need to be a clear rationale for adding birds to the schedule, rather than that just being done on a whim.
The minister’s amendment 61 relates to birds of prey, and I am extremely glad and thankful that the Government has listened to people who use birds of prey for falconry. It is a legitimate field sport, and I have huge respect for the people who pursue it. In some cases, it ensures the survival and diversity of such species by ensuring that there is a captive breeding programme, so that amendment is good news.
I hope that the minister will carefully consider my amendment 17. Its aim is not to frustrate the bill but to make sure that it does what it says on the tin, in that it applies to moorland management and grouse shooting, not other shooting that is recognised as an acceptable form of sport in Scotland.