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 1931 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Monica Lennon
Good morning. My questions are all for David Harley of SEPA. First, I will pick up on enforcement. Recently, criticism by some environmental groups and communities has played out in the media, that there has been a trend of decreasing enforcement action. Will you respond to those concerns and say whether you believe that there is the right balance within SEPA between supporting business and communities, and enforcing compliance with environmental regulations?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Monica Lennon
On the original question about striking the right balance between supporting and enforcing compliance by businesses, are you saying that, right now, you think that the balance is good?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Monica Lennon
For my final question, I will pivot back slightly to funding and resource. There has been some pretty harsh criticism; I am sure that you will have read it, just as we have. Kim Pratt of Friends of the Earth Scotland said—this was in The Ferret, which did a big investigation—that,
“Three years on, the excuse that Sepa is still recovering from a cyber attack is wearing thin”.
That might be quite hard to hear. I go back to the comments from SEPA’s two former CEOs, who are very concerned about your funding situation. The question has been asked: is SEPA a priority for the Scottish Government? Perhaps I can put that question to you, Mr Harley. Do you feel that SEPA is enough of a priority for the Scottish Government?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Monica Lennon
Thank you, Mr Harley. I wish you and your colleagues well.
I will hand back to the convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Monica Lennon
Yes, I have hinted that I want to ask about fly-tipping. I am keen to hear from all the witnesses, so do not feel that you have to answer all parts of my question.
What impact will the provisions in the bill have on fly-tipping? Would you like to see anything else in the bill in that regard? Outwith the proposals in the bill, I am keen to hear what else is happening to improve the enforcement and prevention of fly-tipping.
I will start with David Harley, but I am also keen to hear from Nick Halfhide and Iain Gulland, should they have anything to add.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Monica Lennon
It is reassuring to hear that those provisions are not yet in force. That is quite a long period of time and not everyone who is now on the committee would have been involved in the legislation, so, for the record, what was the first date on which this came to the Government’s attention?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Monica Lennon
Does that apply to any member of the public in Scotland? Can they get in touch?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Monica Lennon
I have been listening with interest, but I just wanted to pick up on the theme of single-use items. Single-use nappies, for example, clearly contribute a lot of waste and end up in landfill, and we know that some councils have put in place local small-scale initiatives to improve access to reusable ones. My question is probably best aimed at Iain Gulland. Is there more scope outside the legislation to do more of that locally and to have schemes that can work with nappy libraries, for example, or is there potential for the legislation to put more of a duty on local authorities and other partners to do that in a much more proactive way?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Monica Lennon
That is helpful. Nick Halfhide, do you want to add any thoughts about the impact of fly-tipping on the environment and wildlife?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Environmental Regulators
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Monica Lennon
I think that many people would agree that prevention of non-compliance is the really crucial work.
The people who have been quite vocal are, I would say, friends of SEPA, including two former chief executives, who have expressed sympathy. They have made comments, including about SEPA being starved of funding. We have heard that your funding has been slashed by more than a quarter in real terms since 2010. One talked about a
“starving of funds”
and another said that people are
“distracted to cost-saving exercises”
that take officers away from front-line environmental regulation. It sounds like those people are critical friends. Are they saying the kind of things out loud that people in SEPA today would perhaps like to say to committees such as ours?
