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 5973 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Edward Mountain
Experience has taught me that, when a landowner signs up to a land management plan, if there is criticism of their objectives and actions, bodies such as NatureScot—Scottish Natural Heritage, as was—run for the hills rather than supporting the land management plan that they signed up to. A land management plan has to work both ways. Once it is signed up and agreed to, it must be supported not only by the landowner, who has developed it in conjunction with the community, but by the community that signed up to it taking part in it and the Government bodies that have asked for it. It needs to be progressive.
The committee heard views on the costings of land management plans. We heard from one witness who suggested that it might cost £60,000 to produce a land management plan, but we thought that that was particular to a specific area, and that land management plans would be graduated in cost. We also heard from two land agents who suggested that £10,000 to £15,000 for a 1,000-hectare estate farm would be relevant.
My concern is that the level of community engagement that might be required is still not bottomed out. Maybe that is something for stage 3. Community engagement can take a considerable amount of time. I gave the example of Glen Prosen. Three years after the Scottish Government purchased it for the people of Scotland, we still do not have a land management plan for it, because community engagement is occurring. It might appear in the next week as a result of this conversation, but I doubt it. It is going to take a considerable amount of time.
I would like to see more bottoming out of the idea, and I would like to work with the cabinet secretary on what community engagement means. If we can get community engagement right, and resolve the issue of the depth of and requirements in the land management plan, they should not necessarily frighten people who are taking part.
I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary could wind up and perhaps agree with everything that I have said—but maybe she will not.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Edward Mountain
It is up to you, Mr Eagle, whether you want to take an intervention, but your enthusiasm may preclude it.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Edward Mountain
Amendment 14, in the name of Tim Eagle, is grouped with amendments 51, 52, 57, 59, 62 to 66, 68, 69, 71, 73 to 75, 78 to 81, 84 to 88, 92 to 96, 101 to 103, 463, 177, 464 and 178 to 180. I remind members that pre-emptions in this group are set out in the groupings of amendments document. I call Tim Eagle to move amendment 14 and speak to all amendments in the group.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Edward Mountain
There will be a division.
For
Lumsden, Douglas (North East Scotland) (Con)
Mountain, Edward (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Against
Doris, Bob (Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn) (SNP)
Lennon, Monica (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Matheson, Michael (Falkirk West) (SNP)
Ruskell, Mark (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green)
Stewart, Kevin (Aberdeen Central) (SNP)
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Edward Mountain
Before I come to the cabinet secretary, I will say that, as a farmer, I am not frightened of producing a land management plan—I am very happy to do it. However, I want to point out some of the problems that farmers face in drawing up a land management plan. As a farmer, I have no idea what I will be doing in two years’ time. I have no idea what the Government wants me to do with the subsidy system in two years’ time. If my landholding was big enough to have a land management plan, I could not come up with one, because I do not know whether the cattle that I have would be something that the Government wants. The Climate Change Committee is talking about a reduction of 33 per cent in cattle numbers, which means that I might not be able to have those cattle. I do not have sheep but, if I did, I might not be able to have those sheep. Although I have barley, I might not even know whether distilleries want the barley in two years’ time. It is very difficult to come up with a land management plan for five years.
I see that Monica Lennon wants to come in, but I will take Mr Ruskell first.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Edward Mountain
There will be a division. [Interruption.] There is some confusion about the result, so I will run that division again, to make sure that we have got it right. Just to be entirely sure, we are on amendment 326.
For
Lennon, Monica (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Lumsden, Douglas (North East Scotland) (Con)
Mountain, Edward (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Ruskell, Mark (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green)
Against
Doris, Bob (Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn) (SNP)
Matheson, Michael (Falkirk West) (SNP)
Stewart, Kevin (Aberdeen Central) (SNP)
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Edward Mountain
The result of the division is: For 4, Against 3, Abstentions 0.
Amendment 326 agreed to.
10:00Amendment 327 not moved.
Amendment 328 moved—[Rhoda Grant].
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Edward Mountain
The question is, that amendment 395 be agreed to. Are we agreed?
Members: No.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Edward Mountain
Sorry?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 June 2025
Edward Mountain
The result of the division is: For 2, Against 5, Abstentions 0.
Amendment 343 disagreed to.
Amendment 46 moved—[Mairi Gougeon]—and agreed to.
Amendment 47 not moved.
Amendment 48 moved—[Mairi Gougeon].
