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
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Monica Lennon
Yes—that is interesting. I am sure that we will continue that conversation in the months ahead.
We received a letter from the minister in November stating that the process for developing a biodiversity delivery plan will involve
“identifying the priority actions”
as well as
“identifying delivery partners, mechanisms for delivery, and the targets and indicators needed to successfully deliver those actions.”
Can you update us on how you are determining priority actions? How are you engaging with stakeholders and securing buy-in across multiple sectors?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Monica Lennon
The panel will know that the Scottish environment strategy is a requirement of section 47 of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, that the act enables ministers to keep pace with European Union law and that its design ensures that Scottish environment law and standards can keep pace with EU developments. To that end, what actions are ministers and officials taking to ensure that environmental law keeps pace with EU standards, including work that is progressing on ecocide law?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Monica Lennon
Good morning to the panel. I want to start by asking about water scarcity, which is an issue that has been in the news recently and which has been discussed in Parliament with you, cabinet secretary. How will water scarcity and flood management be strategically resourced and prioritised over the summer, when we are all in recess, and what is the longer-term outlook?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Monica Lennon
About 10 days ago, I think, I read reports in the media of some restrictions in parts of England on the use of hosepipes and sprinklers in people’s gardens. Is that something that could be introduced in Scotland this year?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Monica Lennon
Thank you. We have many more topics to get through, so I hand back to the convener.
Meeting of the Parliament
Gender-sensitive Audit
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Monica Lennon
I was going to clarify my remarks in closing, as I will be speaking shortly. There had, indeed, been a recent change, and Alexander Stewart has clarified my earlier point.
Meeting of the Parliament
Gender-sensitive Audit
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Monica Lennon
Briefly, I want to mention that, although we should encourage women to stand, all of us who are in political parties will understand it when I say that the selection process can be the most brutal experience. As parties, we might not want to talk about that, but it is often the elephant in the room. We should support people once they get elected, but the selection process can be the most brutal part of the process, and that can put people off. Does the minister recognise that point, and will she suggest to all political parties that we must do better?
Meeting of the Parliament
Gender-sensitive Audit
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Monica Lennon
It is good to have a debate in which we have a bit of time for interventions. I am grateful to Alex Cole-Hamilton for his role on the board and his reflections. In addition, it is nice to see Kevin Stewart in the chamber—I wish him well. We would all benefit from more kindness in our politics and our Parliament. Often, that is seen as a weakness, but it is a strength.
What I wanted to say to colleagues is that, as well as being a political chamber, it is also a workplace, and the words that we say and the tone that we take here can have an impact on the colleagues who write down our words and who work across this chamber. Given that it is a workplace, should we not all take more care not only to reflect and look back, but to make the commitment that we will be respectful and more constructive in the language that we use?
Meeting of the Parliament
Gender-sensitive Audit
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Monica Lennon
Many of us might be following on Twitter the journalist Michael Crick, who spends a lot of time following the parliamentary selections of various political parties. He has noticed the trend in twinning selections that, in most instances, men are getting more votes than women. Therefore, the male candidate gets to pick the seat, which is often the more winnable one. I wonder whether my colleague has any observations on what can be done about that.
Meeting of the Parliament
Gender-sensitive Audit
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Monica Lennon
Will the member give way?
