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 1103 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
New Petition
Meeting date: 7 May 2025
David Torrance
I wonder whether the committee would consider writing to the Scottish Government to seek clarification on the funding that it has provided through the delivery of the equally safe fund or local government settlement, and to ask what specific contribution it has made to the provision of women-only homeless services and efforts to ensure that a consistent gender approach is taken to the allocation and supply of temporary accommodation.
I wonder whether it would also consider writing to the Government to ask when it expects the temporary accommodation standards framework to become legally enforceable.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 7 May 2025
David Torrance
I wonder whether the committee will consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, because the Scottish Government considers the existing provisions to be appropriate, it is up to local planning authorities to determine applications case by case, and because Outsmart—the trade association for the out-of-home advertising industry—also considers the existing provisions to be proportionate and appropriate.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 7 May 2025
David Torrance
In the light of that evidence, I suggest that we close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government has confirmed that proposals for highly protected marine areas will not be progressed and that NatureScot is not progressing any work related to highly protected marine areas.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
David Torrance
Ben Lamb said that is costs between £100 to £200 an hour to run a swimming pool. The biggest cost will be energy, whether it is heating the building and the water, lighting and so on. How do local authorities and trusts embrace new technology? There is technology that can reduce energy costs greatly and probably make pools far more viable, but, from what I see in my local authority, local authorities are not very good at bringing new technology on board.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
David Torrance
My next question was going to be about how competitive and successful we are at swimming, as a nation. You mentioned that we punch above our weight for the size of our population. However, somebody has already mentioned that pool closures affect the distances that people have to travel to learn to swim or to compete or train. The Kirkcaldy amateur swimming club is a great club that trains people, and the Fins competitive swim club in Fife is also a good club. Will pool closures restrict the way that we can bring athletes forward because of the distances that they have to travel to train?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
David Torrance
Yes.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
David Torrance
Convener—
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
David Torrance
The committee has heard that 40 per cent of children in Scotland leave primary school unable to swim. What is the current provision of swimming lessons for primary school pupils, and how is that provision decided?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
New Petitions
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
David Torrance
I wonder whether the committee would consider writing to the Scottish Government to ask for a more detailed response to the petition, in particular to the suggestion that those who face significant waiting lists for donor eggs should be able to use an altruistically donated, privately purchased donor egg for NHS treatment. We could also ask what data is available to support information on NHS waiting times for couples who require an altruistic egg donor; whether the waiting time exceeds four years and, if so, what is the longest waiting time; and whether the Scottish Government believes that NHS boards are currently meeting the needs of couples who face a significant waiting list for donor eggs, which could prevent them from receiving treatment in time to have a biological child.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
David Torrance
In the light of the evidence that we have received, I suggest that the committee considers closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that no NHS facility in Scotland has car parking charges; local authorities are responsible for managing wider car parking policy, including deciding on whether exemptions should apply, as well as having responsibility for the administration and enforcement of the blue badge scheme; the Scottish Government has now introduced the carer support payment nationally, and further financial support is available to eligible carers through benefits such as the carers allowance supplement; and the Scottish Government considers that a separate concessionary scheme, such as a carers badge, would present significant challenges, including around administration, resourcing, enforcement, and measures to prevent fraud and misuse.
