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 3061 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Gillian Martin
Yes. The most important thing is that we provide certainty. As I outlined in my opening remarks, we want to work in tandem with the UK Government to provide that certainty and also to do joint consultation.
There is concern that, if we do not make the exemption for energy intensive industries, particularly in the high fuel price situation that we have at the moment, they could find that they are not profitable any more and they may have to consider things such as job losses—that is everything that we want to avoid. The large manufacturing sector is particularly affected—it obviously consumes a great deal of energy—so the policy protects them to a certain extent and protects those jobs. [Gillian Martin has corrected this contribution. See end of report.]
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Gillian Martin
There are about 43 in Scotland.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Gillian Martin
Obviously, everything around the decarbonisation of energy is devolved to Scotland and our economic department is looking particularly at high-energy sectors such as manufacturing.
I am not sure that this particular instrument is about incentivising anything. I think it is about protecting jobs. We have large manufacturing, such as food production and feed-stock production. The original point behind the renewables obligation was to get a subsidy for renewables, but this particular exemption is about large manufacturers that are particularly affected by inflation and high fuel costs. There are thousands of jobs associated with those manufacturers and this is about protecting them in the face of a number of pressures. [Gillian Martin has corrected this contribution. See end of report.]
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Gillian Martin
The solutions to that lie in other schemes and all the work that we are doing with various sectors. There are obviously incentives for decarbonisation in the business support and procurement landscape in Scotland. We are working on a green industrial strategy and there will also be incentives in that. There is incentivisation across the piece of what the Scottish Government puts forward, particularly with our enterprise agencies.
This particular instrument, to my mind and my interpretation, is about keeping the manufacturing and energy intensive industries going and taking away one of the pressures on them, particularly given the global landscape of fluctuating energy prices that at the moment are outwith our control. As we look to the future and have more renewable electricity, in particular, in Scotland, those pressures will decrease.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Gillian Martin
No, I will not take that chance. I think that I have said everything that I need to say. Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Correction
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Gillian Martin
Gillian Martin has identified errors in her contribution and provided the following corrections.
At col 3, paragraph 6—
Original text—
There is concern that, if we do not make the exemption for energy intensive industries, particularly in the high fuel price situation that we have at the moment
Corrected text—
There is concern that, if we do not make the exemption for energy intensive industries, particularly in the high electricity price situation that we have at the moment
At col 4, paragraph 1—
Original text—
That will amount to quite a substantial sum if you think about the huge amount of fuel that is used by those particular industries.
Corrected text—
That will amount to quite a substantial sum if you think about the huge amount of electricity that is used by those particular industries.
At col 5, paragraph 1—
Original text—
but this particular exemption is about large manufacturers that are particularly affected by inflation and high fuel costs
Corrected text—
but this particular exemption is about large manufacturers that are particularly affected by inflation and high electricity costs
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Gillian Martin
I have some figures here.
I will mention domestic fuel bills, because obviously the exemption is recouped. The measure will have very little impact on domestic fuel bills.
I will have a look for the figures.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Gillian Martin
I will need to check my notes on that, Ms Boyack. I do not think that I have that information to hand. Obviously, you are making a decision today. If we can find that information we will provide it to the committee.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Gillian Martin
The industries that are involved have already been set and the amendment will not allow any others to come into the scheme. They are already agreed and set. The exemption was 85 per cent and it will now be 100 per cent. We have seen in the last couple of years that particular energy intensive industries have found it quite difficult to keep employing people and to keep operations from losing money.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 27 February 2024
Gillian Martin
It adds a very small amount. It is important to mention, Mr Lumsden, that this will be across the UK. Households typically account for about 40 per cent of renewables obligation costs recovered by suppliers. The average cost is currently about £77.50 per year on an electricity bill. The exemption is likely to cost just an extra pound or two.
We do not want a situation where household bills are affected by things like that, but I think the reason behind this is that there is an awful lot more at stake if we do not have an exemption. The particular sectors that are affected by this employ a large number of people, not just in Scotland but throughout the UK, particularly in manufacturing.
The UK Government has decided to increase the exemption to 100 per cent. It has historically been the case that the Scottish Government has not gone on a different path and we too want to stay on the path and have agreed to act alongside the UK Government.
Also, we do not want carbon leakage. If we have a landscape in the UK or Scotland where it is increasingly unprofitable for those industries to exist, the chances are that they will go elsewhere. It will be not just carbon leakage but economic leakage. This is a way in which we can protect those industries from their overheads being so onerous that they might have to think about taking their operations elsewhere.
